


Secrets Written in Blood

by HollywoodCassieCage



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Blood, F/F, I will probably add more tags as I go, Manipulation, Unhealthy Relationships, also mc has a name in this, but honestly it's probably not that graphic most of the time, i put the graphic violence warning on just in case, if you're a big fan of his this may not be for you, obviously there's gonna be blood it's a vampire au, starts off being mainly about jaehee/mc but other characters play bigger roles later, uuh should probably warn y'all that this fic isn't kind to v
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-03-22 14:22:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 58,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13766019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HollywoodCassieCage/pseuds/HollywoodCassieCage
Summary: It's been almost two years since Rika's death. Everyone has been trying forget it and move on, but Seunghee mysteriously appearing in her apartment one night reminds them forcibly of their loss. Seunghee herself is strange, and obviously has secrets of her own. Why does she only talk to them at night?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey I wrote this like a year ago and I'm finally not being a coward and posting the first chapter

_He hadn’t wanted her to go out so late at night by herself. She had to sneak out while he was asleep, so he wouldn’t worry and try to stop her. Or worse, insist on going with her. He was right that it was dangerous, but she wanted to see the moon and stars, and feel the cold air on her face, and be enveloped by the dark. And she wanted to be alone. She was beyond caring about the danger, beyond caring about herself. Part of her may have been hoping that something bad would happen to her. Her self-destructive tendencies, as he and her therapist had liked to call them, may have been calling to her. She didn’t care. Why should she ignore them?_

_Poor Sally. Poor, poor Sally, dead because of her mistake. How long had the dog been suffering without her knowing? It broke her heart to think about it, but she couldn’t get it out of her mind._

_Everyone told her it wasn’t her fault. She had only made the choice she thought was best for Sally. No one could have predicted this would happen. It wasn’t her fault, they said. Sally loved her, Sally had been happy with her, what happened was an accident. It wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t her fault._

_She squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking hot and fast down her cheeks. They were only trying to be nice, she knew that. But she so wished they would stop telling her that, because they were wrong. It was her fault. She had made the wrong choice for Sally, and now her poor sweet dog was dead. She should have listened to the vet and given Sally the surgery. She should have been a better owner to Sally. She should have realized that Sally was in pain. Her fault, her mistake._

_The streets were mostly empty at this time, but the few people she did pass gave her strange looks when they noticed her crying. It had been a long time since she had gotten those looks, since she rarely let anyone except V see her cry these days, but she hated the looks just as much as she always had. As she walked, she found herself choosing streets that had fewer people, until she was in an area that seemed completely abandoned. She didn’t know the area well, which probably should have scared her, but she didn’t care. She was just glad to be away from people’s eyes._

_She was crying more loudly now, no longer bothering to try restraining herself. No one was around to see or hear her anyway. She was alone with the sound of her shuddering sobs and her own soft footsteps. She wished she had died instead of Sally. She was so tired. Tired of the pain that felt like it would never go away. Tired of making mistake after mistake that only seemed to harm her loved ones. Tired of the kind words that she knew she didn’t deserve. Tired of being so afraid of herself, because it felt like no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t be the good person she wanted to be. What was wrong with her? Why did she keep getting things wrong? Why did she never feel like enough?_

_She didn’t know how much time had passed, but suddenly her footsteps weren’t the only ones she was hearing. She stopped crying abruptly, her heart pounding. She kept walking, quickening her stride, hoping that maybe whoever else was here would pass her by._

_“What’s wrong, blondie?”_

_The voice sounded female, and was surprisingly soft and kind, so much so that she stopped in her tracks for a moment._

_“You shouldn’t be alone at this time of night.”_

_That was what V had told her, too. It wasn’t like she didn’t know he was right, she just didn’t care. She resented him a little for trying to tell her what to do, and she resented this stranger too._

_“I want to be alone,” Rika said. Her voice was hoarse and broken from crying. She cleared her throat and said more strongly, “Leave me alone.”_

_She started to walk again, but she had barely taken two steps when an icy hand grabbed her arm from behind her, turning her around forcefully. She didn’t have time to get a good look at her attacker, didn’t even have time to scream before something sharp was piercing her neck._

_She gasped, in pain and in surprise. She could still feel her heart pounding, and her pulse in her neck, and the warm liquid that was trickling down to her collar. She struggled feebly, but her attacker was so much stronger than her. They held her tightly, and she soon found her eyes drifting shut and her muscles loosening as she relaxed in the vampire’s hold. That was surely what her attacker was. A vampire. She could feel its fangs in her flesh and its lips on her skin as it drained her, taking her blood into itself, leeching the life from her body._

_When it loosened its hold, she suddenly realized that she was too weak to stand on her own. She fell to the ground, her neck still bleeding heavily, staining her dress and her skin. The vampire stood over her, blood dripping from its mouth, and its fangs seemed to glimmer in the moonlight._

_She should have been shocked by the revelation that vampires existed. She should have been terrified to have just been attacked by one. And yet, as she watched her own blood begin to pool on the cold ground, all Rika could think was,_ This is what I deserve for what I did to Sally. This is what I deserve for my mistake. 

*  


It had already been a full day since Seunghee had joined the RFA. She had appeared suddenly in the chatroom last night, taking all of them by surprise with her story about having been led to Rika’s old apartment by a stranger. Jaehee still felt that the others had trusted her too soon. What did they really know about this girl who was suddenly their newest member? Her whole story was so bizarre, Jaehee didn’t like how quickly everyone had accepted it and let her in. 

Was she being too rigid? She didn’t want to antagonize Seunghee, she just thought the situation was suspicious. V was the one who had approved Seunghee joining, and that was good enough for the other members. Jaehee supposed if there was anything sketchy about Seunghee, Seven would have found it by now and he definitely would have told them. Well, he probably would have told them. Surely it wouldn’t hurt for Jaehee to be cautious all the same. 

Seunghee hadn’t made an appearance in the chatroom since joining the RFA last night. She was the only thing anyone had talked about all day, but she hadn’t come to chat with them a single time yet. Or if she had, it was while nobody else was online and therefore couldn’t see her, and she hadn’t left behind any messages. Maybe she had changed her mind. Maybe she had decided she wanted no part in the RFA after all, deleted the app, and left the apartment. But… Seven would have known if she had, wouldn’t he? She knew he could check for Seunghee’s presence at Rika’s apartment easily. If Seunghee had disappeared, Jaehee was confident that Seven would have shared that information, at least. 

It was amazing how much someone Jaehee hadn’t even had a proper conversation with yet could occupy her thoughts like this. 

It was late, and Jaehee was exhausted, but she decided to see if anyone was online. To her surprise, Seunghee was. It was lucky that Jaehee had decided to check now. Finally she had a chance to talk to Seunghee.

**Jaehee Kang has entered the chatroom**

****

****

**Jaehee Kang: Seunghee! Hello.**

**Seunghee: Hello, Jaehee.**

**Jaehee Kang: Everyone has been talking about you today.**

**Seunghee: Yeah, I was just looking at the old messages.**

**Jaehee Kang: Were you busy today?**

**Seunghee: Yes.**

**Seunghee: I’m always busy during the day.**

**Jaehee Kang: Oh... I see.**

_I’m always busy too, but I can still come to chat,_ Jaehee thought of saying, but quickly decided not to. It would sound rude and presumptuous. Seunghee was probably still getting used to being in the RFA, and perhaps wasn’t sure yet how to juggle the organization with whatever other responsibilities she may have. 

**Jaehee Kang: If you don’t mind me asking, what do you do?**

**Seunghee: I don’t feel comfortable answering that.**

**Jaehee Kang: That’s fine, I understand.**

Why didn’t Seunghee want to tell her? It was true that Seunghee didn’t know any of them that well yet, but they had all told her what they do without much prompting. Maybe she just valued her privacy. That wasn’t too odd, right?

**Jaehee Kang: I tend to be up quite late most nights too.**

**Jaehee Kang: How late do you usually stay up?**

**Seunghee: Very late.**

**Jaehee Kang: This will sound hypocritical coming from me, but you really should try to sleep earlier.**

**Seunghee: Haha**

**Seunghee: I’m fine**

Had Jaehee been too nagging? She supposed it wasn’t any of her business when Seunghee went to bed.

**Seunghee: But thank you for your concern.**

**Jaehee Kang: Oh**

**Jaehee Kang: You’re welcome.**

**Seunghee: Anyway, why do YOU stay up so late?**

**Jaehee Kang: …**

**Jaehee Kang: I always seem to have work.**

**Jaehee Kang: But I should be going to bed now. I just wanted to say hello.**

**Seunghee: Okay. Good night, Jaehee**

**Jaehee Kang: Good night**

Jaehee exited the chatroom. She thought Seunghee had been cold with her, but she wondered if she was only imagining it. She hadn’t exactly been warm to Seunghee in return. Jaehee would have liked to have spoken to Seunghee more, but she really did need to get some sleep.

Although... maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to call Seunghee. Just for a minute, and then she would go to sleep. Seven had given all of them her phone number, which she hoped he had gotten her permission to do but knew he probably hadn’t. She was sure that suddenly joining the organization must be overwhelming for Seunghee, and it might be comforting to her to hear another member’s voice.

Plus, Jaehee had to admit she was curious about her. 

She called Seunghee. It didn’t take long for her to pick up.

“Hello?” 

“Seunghee, hello. This is Jaehee Kang, Director Jumin Han’s assistant.” 

“I know who you are, Jaehee.”

“Sorry, it’s force of habit.” She paused. “I hope you don’t mind me calling you. Luciel gave all of us your phone number.”

“He did?”

“Um, yes. Is that okay?”

“It’s fine. I mean, it would have been nice if he’d asked, but oh well,” Seunghee said. Her tone was hard to read, but Jaehee thought she might have been being playful. Maybe. “Is something up? I thought you were going to bed.”

“I will be soon,” Jaehee said. She was suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious. “I just thought it might be nice for us to talk on the phone. I’m sure this all must be very strange for you.”

“It is a bit strange.”

“I know how you must feel, I joined the organization late too,” Jaehee said. Of course, when she joined the organization, it had had nothing to do with cryptic messages from hackers and being sent to a stranger’s apartment, but she figured that didn’t need to be brought up. “Everyone was very nice to me, though, and I’m sure they’ll be nice to you too.”

“Thanks, Jaehee.”

“You’re welcome. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.”

“You said earlier that you don’t trust me. Is that still true?”

Oh. She hadn’t been prepared for that question. Jaehee cleared her throat nervously. “I… you have to understand, it’s nothing personal. It’s just… you joined so suddenly, and in such a strange way, and we really don’t know anything about you yet. I just want to be cautious, I don’t mean to offend you.”

“Well, I guess that makes sense.”

Jaehee added quickly, “But I do look forward to getting to know you more. And… it’s nice to have another woman in the RFA again.”

“Yeah, I’m glad I’m not the only woman in the group,” Seunghee said, her voice considerably lighter now. “I hope we get closer.”

Jaehee smiled. “Yes, I hope so too.”

“Was it hard being the only girl?” Seunghee asked.

“In some ways,” Jaehee said. “To be honest, I’m not sure the other members really thought of me as a girl.” 

“Why wouldn’t they think of you as a girl?”

“I don’t know.” Jaehee thought about it. “I suppose I don’t act particularly feminine around them. I don’t usually look particularly feminine either.”

“That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t see you as a girl,” Seunghee said.

“I know,” Jaehee said. “Maybe I’m wrong, it’s just a feeling I get from them. I could be imagining it.”

“Do you like being in the RFA?”

“Yes, I suppose.” Jaehee sat down on her bed, leaning against her pillow and making herself comfortable. “Although, I didn’t really join by choice. Mr. Han sort of forced me to.”

“Forced you to?” Seunghee asked. “How did he force you? Did he threaten to fire you if you didn’t? That’s so unfair.”

“Oh, no! Nothing like that,” Jaehee said hurriedly. “He just said he would like for me to join, because he thought I could be of help.”

There was a pause before Seunghee said, “And?”

“And that’s it.” Jaehee blinked a few times. “Okay, maybe he didn’t force me. Maybe I just felt like I had to say yes because he’s my boss.”

“RFA isn’t related to your work at C&R, is it? You probably could have said no if you wanted to, I don’t think he could’ve done anything.”

Jaehee blushed, feeling a bit foolish now.

“Well, I’m glad you’re here either way,” Seunghee said kindly. “You did say you liked being in the RFA, right? At least there’s that.”

“Yes, I do like it. I remember Rika telling me –” Jaehee stopped herself abruptly. “Um, do you mind if I talk about Rika?”

“Why would I mind?”

“Well, it must be hard for you,” Jaehee said. “You’re taking her place and you didn’t even know her. And I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot about her from everyone. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

“I’m fine, Jaehee.” Seunghee laughed a little. It was a nice sound. 

“Well, all right. She told me she was sorry I joined because I felt forced and not because I really wanted to,” Jaehee said. “She was afraid that because it wasn’t exactly my choice, I may not care for it as much.”

“Was she right?”

“Yes and no. It’s true that I’ve never quite felt at home here the way the other members did. Of course they’ve all been nice to me, but I’m not particularly close with any of them. I guess you could say I’m close to Mr. Han, but only because I work for him. I don’t know if we’re exactly friends. Um….” Jaehee trailed off. She wasn’t sure why she was telling Seunghee all of this. “Sorry, I’m sure you’re not interested in any of this.”

“Of course I am!”

“I’ve been talking about myself so much, and you’ve barely gotten to say a word,” Jaehee said. “That must be obnoxious.”

Seunghee laughed. “It’s okay, Jaehee. I liked hearing about you. It’s why I asked. But hey, shouldn’t you be getting to sleep?”

“I should.” She hadn’t meant for the phone call to go as long as it did. She felt like she had been babbling for most of it.

“Go on then. Let’s talk again soon, okay?”

“Sure.”

They bid each other goodbye and Jaehee hung up. She got the feeling that Seunghee had been trying to get rid of her quickly. She was probably just being paranoid. Seunghee had said she would want to talk again. Soon. Jaehee hoped Seunghee had meant it, because she now found herself looking forward to the next time they spoke.

Jaehee had enjoyed talking with Seunghee, more than she would have thought possible, but she also felt a bit uncomfortable about the conversation they had. When she had called, she had meant to find out more about Seunghee. Instead, she had ended up talking about herself, and she still knew next to nothing about Seunghee. Why did she tell Seunghee all of that? She didn’t usually open up to people she had just met that way. But Seunghee had seemed genuinely curious, and Jaehee wasn’t used to people taking interest in her that way. She couldn’t help wanting to tell Seunghee everything on her mind, even if she was still suspicious.

Next time, she would be sure to ask Seunghee about herself.

*

It had to be Rika. It couldn’t be anyone else. Could it?

Seunghee, that woman who had appeared in their lives so suddenly, had to have been sent to them by Rika, Yoosung was sure of it. Who else would know where the apartment was? Who else could have allowed her to get inside? Seunghee had insisted that she didn’t know anything, though. And Seven had looked into it, and if he had found any connection to Rika he would have told them. 

Or maybe he wouldn’t have. Seven and V, they did like to keep their secrets from the rest of them. Though Yoosung knew it was unfair to get mad at Seven about it, he was only doing what V told him. However, Yoosung thought it was perfectly fair to get mad at V about it.

He sighed at his own bitter thoughts. Maybe it wasn’t Rika. No, it probably wasn’t. If she had wanted someone to come to her apartment and take over her work, wouldn’t she have told them before? If Seunghee was meant to be there, if she had really been sent by Rika, why was it only happening now, a year and a half after Rika’s death? Why had they never heard of or seen Seunghee until now? But if it wasn’t Rika, well, that only raised more questions. Who was this “Unknown” person and what was their connection to Rika and the RFA?

Yoosung couldn’t stand staying still like this, waiting for answers that may never come. He picked up his phone and dialed Seven’s number. Seven picked up on the second ring.

“Yoosung, thank God!” Seven cried. “You haven’t called for a whole twelve minutes, I was getting worried!”

Yoosung rolled his eyes. “I haven’t called you that often.”

“You’ve called me seventeen times today.”

“No I haven’t!” Yoosund said defensively. “You didn’t even answer the last two times, so those don’t count.”

“Um, they definitely count.” Seven paused. “You also sent me twenty-three texts.”

“Because you’re not telling me anything!” Yoosung realized that the hand not holding his phone was clenched into a fist so tight it was starting to hurt. He relaxed his hand and tried to keep his voice steady. “I just want to know –”

“If I’ve found anything linking Seunghee or the hacker to Rika,” Seven interrupted him. “And I’ve told you, I haven’t yet.”

“Would you –”

“Would I tell you if I do find anything? You’ve asked me that already too,” Seven said, sounding exasperated. “And again, I’ve told you that of course I would.”

Okay, so they had already had this conversation today. So why couldn’t Yoosung just take the answers Seven was giving?

“Why don’t you play LOLOL to take your mind off of things?” Seven said, more gently. “No wait, it’s almost two in the morning, and you have school tomorrow, don’t you? You should probably go to bed.”

“It doesn’t matter, I only have classes in the afternoon tomorrow,” Yoosung said distractedly. “Seven, you really will tell me if you find anything about Rika, won’t you? Promise me you will!”

“Yes, I promise, Yoosung. You’ll be the first person I tell. Or second after V. Is that good enough?”

No, it wasn’t. “I guess so,” Yoosung said. “Is there anything you can tell me?”

Seven sighed. “Not really. I haven’t been able to trace this hacker, and –”

“There’s someone even you can’t trace? No way.”

“Hey, I’ll catch him!” Seven said. He sounded hurt. “It’s just taking longer than expected. This guy is good. Or girl. Or whatever. But I’ll get them! No one can beat me!”

It sounded like Seven was trying to convince himself more than Yoosung. He decided to let it slide. “What about Seunghee? Anything about her?”

“Nothing that interesting,” Seven said. “She’s not particularly active on social media, it seems. In fact, she hasn’t posted anything on social media for a year.”

“That’s kind of weird, isn’t it?” Yoosung asked.

“I thought so too, but her activity before that was so low that it might not mean anything. Maybe she’s just bored with that stuff.”

“That still seems weird,” Yoosung said, though he figured Seven would know better whether this was something to be concerned about. “Anything else?”

“Nothing worth sharing,” Seven said. “Yoosung, I really need to get back to work. You’re not going to call me again five minutes from now, are you?”

“No. I don’t know.” Yoosung picked at his nails. “Hey, if you’re so annoyed with me calling, why don’t you turn your phone off?”

“I can’t in case someone important calls.”

“Oh, right. Wait, are you saying that I’m not important?”

“Yoosung, I need to work.”

“Right. Sorry.”

They said goodbye and hung up. Yoosung resolved that he wouldn’t call Seven again that night, though it was tempting. He still felt that Seven wasn’t being totally honest with him, but maybe he was just paranoid. He knew that’s what everyone else would think. That he was overreacting. Too emotional. Whiny.

Well, even if that was true, could they blame him? Why couldn’t anyone understand how he felt? He hated feeling like he was the only one who still cared about Rika, the only one who couldn’t let her go and move on.

Rika… could this really have nothing to do with her?

He didn’t feel like going to bed, although it was very late. He could play a few rounds of LOLOL, as Seven suggested, but he wasn’t in the mood. He checked the messenger, just for something to do. No one was online, but there was a past log from just a few hours ago. Seunghee had been in the chatroom for the first time since she appeared the night before. There was a short conversation between her and Jaehee, but it didn’t reveal much of interest.

Seunghee did say that she was always up late, though. Would she still be awake now? Seven had given all of them her phone number, though it wasn’t clear if he had gotten her permission first. Yoosung wanted to call her, to see if maybe she could shed some light over what was going on. She had said she didn’t know anything, but he still wanted to ask her over the phone.

His fingers were already dialing her number before he had consciously made the decision to do so. She answered fairly quickly.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Seunghee? It’s Yoosung. Um –”

“Oh, hi Yoosung. You’re the second person to call me tonight,” she said.

“I am? So, you’re not surprised that I have your number?”

“Seven gave it to you right? Jaehee told me when she called not too long ago.” 

“I hope I’m not annoying you,” Yoosung said. He felt a bit nervous now that he was talking to her. She had seemed friendly enough in the chatroom when she’d first appeared, and was still giving off that impression now, so why did he feel slightly intimidated? It must just be because he didn’t know her well enough yet. “I just, um, have some questions for you.”

“Of course you do,” Seunghee said. “Everyone does. But I’ve told you all, I don’t know anything. I would tell you if I did, honestly.”

“You really don’t know anything about Rika?” Yoosung said. His voice was thick with emotion, which made him a bit embarrassed. Although he had expected it, he couldn’t help feeling disappointed by what Seunghee was telling him.

“I don’t. I’m sorry,” she said quietly. 

“It’s all right. Don’t apologize.” It was stupid of him to get his hopes up anyway. He was so desperate to know anything about Rika, anything that might unravel the mystery surrounding her death. Seunghee was the only clue that he had been given in nearly two years, and she was telling him she didn’t know anything. He was sure that she was connected to it, even if she didn’t know how, but if she had no information for him, what could he do?

“It’s weird being in her apartment,” Seunghee said. “Her stuff is still here, did you know that? No, wait – you said you’ve never been here, right? Why is that?”

Yoosung started clenching his fists again. He knew she probably wasn’t doing it on purpose, but she was making him extremely jealous. It was so unfair that she got to be in Rika’s apartment, where none of them had ever been, surrounded by Rika memories, and she had never even known Rika.

Maybe Seunghee had picked up on something from Yoosung’s silence, because she said, “Oh, I’m sorry. That was probably insensitive.”

“It’s fine. What is her apartment like?”

“It’s nice.” Seunghee paused. “Um, if you don’t mind me asking, how old was Rika?”

“She was twenty-three when she died,” Yoosung said. It wasn’t something he liked to think about. In a few years he would be older than she was at her death, and it pained him to consider that. “Why do you ask?”

“I was just wondering. Her decorating style is… interesting.”

“In what way?”

“I feel like I’m in someone’s grandmother’s house. Why does she have so many doilies? And quilts. There are so many quilts. And there are a lot of jars and tins in the kitchen. They’re all empty now, but did she used to bake a lot?”

“Yes, she did,” Yoosung said softly, his eyes welling up with tears. He was glad to hear Seunghee’s description of the apartment, grateful to be able to feel this connection to Rika. He could almost imagine what it looked like, could almost see Rika living happily there. “What else?”

“Did she knit? There’s knitting needles and yarn here. And” – Yoosung could hear the muffled sounds of her moving around the apartment, picking things up and putting them down – “she liked a lot of the same books as me, I guess.” Seunghee paused again. “Yoosung, are you okay?”

Had she heard him sniffling? He was trying to be subtle. “I’m okay. I just – it’s still hard for me to –” to his frustration and embarrassment, his voice broke.

“I’m sorry, Yoosung,” Seunghee said. “I know that all of this must be hard. You were Rika’s cousin, right?”

Yoosung nodded, then realized Seunghee couldn’t see him. “Yeah.”

“Were you two close?”

“Very.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again. “Can you tell me a bit about her? It’s okay if you don’t want to, I’m just curious.”

“Rika was amazing,” Yoosung said. “Almost all of her free time went to volunteer work, you know? She used to tell me all the time how much she loved helping people, how it made her happy to make other people happy. She was my idol. I – I really wanted to be like her. I never thought she would – anyway, she was just… a really good person.” He felt like his description wasn’t doing Rika justice. 

“She sounds like it,” Seunghee said. “Hey Yoosung, what do you think of V?”

Oh. Why were they talking about him now? Yoosung didn’t want to. “What about him?”

“I just wondered because… well, I can’t really figure him out.”

Yoosung took a moment to wipe his eyes while he thought of how to answer her. It wasn’t a secret to the RFA that he hated V, but he wondered if it would be appropriate to talk about that with Seunghee. Since she was asking, he probably should be honest with her. It was something that she would figure out quickly on her own anyway.

“I don’t like him,” he said carefully. “The others trust him but… I don’t.”

“Why not?”

He hesitated again. “I wasn’t satisfied with – with the answers he gave us. About Rika’s death. It never sounded right to me.”

“Why weren’t you satisfied? Do you think he lied?”

She wasn’t going to quit, was she? “I think he lied about some of it. I don’t know. Maybe not lied exactly, but I think he’s hiding something, which is kind of the same thing.”

“Yeah, I got that feeling too,” Seunghee said

Yoosung was taken aback by this. He wasn’t used to people agreeing with him when it came to V. “You did? Really?”

“Yeah. I mean, I haven’t gotten to talk with him that much yet,” Seunghee said. “So far he’s only shown up long enough to invite me into the organization. But I don’t know, he does give me a weird feeling. Is he always so cryptic?”

Yoosung couldn’t help laughing, more out of relief than anything. Finally, someone who got it. “Yeah, he’s like that a lot. It’s gotten worse ever since Rika passed away. He’ll hardly talk to us anymore and when he does you can still barely get anything out of him.”

“So why do you think everyone else trusts him so much?”

“I don’t know,” Yoosung said. He suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable. “He wasn’t always so bad. I know he meant a lot to Rika, and he was our friend. Everyone still considers him their friend, I guess.”

“Do you?”

“I don’t know.” Yoosung felt like he had said that a lot tonight. He didn’t want to talk about V anymore, not right now. “Seunghee, I should probably go.”

“Okay. Thanks for calling me, Yoosung. This was nice.”

“Oh. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for listening to me.”

He said goodbye and hung up, unsure of what to think. He was already taking a liking to Seunghee, because of her willingness to listen to and empathize with him. He knew all of the other members were tired of him talking about Rika and V, but not Seunghee. Maybe she would tire of him at some point too, but for now she was open to what he had to say. She even agreed with him.

He still wished he knew more about Seunghee. He was sure that Rika had something to do with all of this, and that Seunghee could be the thing he was missing, the key that would unlock the answer to every question he had about what had happened to Rika. He supposed he would just have to wait.

He never had been good at waiting.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No one asked but here's chapter 2. Please comment if you're reading!

When Jaehee woke up the next morning, she had a text from Seunghee on her phone. It must have been sent while she was asleep.

**Good morning, Jaehee! Have a nice day at work!**

It had gone a long way toward brightening Jaehee’s mood. She had sent Seunghee a thank you as a response, and Seunghee hadn’t sent her anything else since. Jaehee couldn’t help checking her phone every few minutes that day, just in case, but no reply came. Oh well. It wasn’t like she should have been texting back and forth with Seunghee at work anyway, and Seunghee was probably busy too. 

It was strange. Jaehee still wasn’t sure that she trusted Seunghee, why would she care so much about getting a text from her? She was curious about Seunghee, of course, but maybe there was something else to it. Although she had only spoken to Seunghee for a short time last night, she had enjoyed it so much. She felt warm and… happy, every time she thought of it.

Jaehee had never really had that many friends. Her coworkers were generally nice to her, a few of them had even invited her to go out with them after work, but she never seemed to have time. She supposed she might count the RFA as her friends, but she was always a bit disconnected from them. She was the only one who hadn’t known Rika or V prior to joining the RFA, and the only one for whom being in the RFA felt like an extension of work more than anything else. Enjoyable work, but still work.

She didn’t mind not having friends that much, most of the time. She did tend to keep to herself anyway. She couldn’t pretend she didn’t feel lonely, though. Having someone to talk to, the way she had talked to Seunghee last night, would be nice. She found herself wondering what Seunghee’s interests were. Maybe they had something in common.

As she wondered about Seunghee, she found her thoughts suddenly turning to Rika. That was to be expected. No one could help thinking about Rika with Seunghee around. If Jaehee was being honest, she hadn’t thought very much about Rika in a long time. They hadn’t been particularly close, after all. Jaehee had been saddened and shaken by Rika’s death, but it probably had not affected her the same way it affected everyone else.

She did have some fond memories of Rika. When Jaehee had first joined, Rika had done her best to reach out to her. Rika had seemed glad to have another woman in the group, though she confessed she was a bit disappointed that Jaehee had joined more out of obligation than anything else. Still, Rika had made an effort to make Jaehee feel welcome, and had even seemed to want to befriend Jaehee. They had both liked musicals, and had talked about going to see one together some day, and having a girls’ night out for just the two of them. Jaehee had even let Rika borrow one of her DVDs of Zen’s performances, the only one Rika didn’t have. Jaehee never got the DVD back.

For some time, Jaehee had thought that maybe she and Rika could become good friends, but they had never gotten a chance to do the things they had planned together before Rika died. Jaehee’s grief was tinged with regret. She wished she had gotten to know Rika more. She wished she could have called Rika a friend. When Jaehee mourned Rika, it felt like she was mourning the relationship they might have had more than Rika herself. It felt a bit selfish to be thinking that way, but Jaehee felt disconnected even from the RFA’s pain. They were mourning a close friend, while for Jaehee, Rika was just a person she had never gotten to know as well as she would have liked. It was a peculiar feeling, and not one Jaehee liked to linger on.

Could Jaehee be friends with Seunghee? It might be possible. The thought was nice, but she didn’t even know whether Seunghee was trustworthy yet. She was definitely getting ahead of herself, which was very unlike her.

Was the rest of the RFA as conflicted as she was? They had all seemed to accept Seunghee so easily. All it had taken was V’s seal of approval. If they had any doubts, they weren’t sharing them in the chatroom. The last time Seven was online, which was a few hours ago, he said that he hadn’t found anything incriminating about Seunghee. If that was the case, maybe Jaehee really was being overly cautious. Maybe there was nothing weird about Seunghee, and she actually was as innocent as she claimed.

What did worry Jaehee was that Seven had yet to find out anything about the hacker who had led Seunghee to the apartment. As far as Jaehee knew, Seven had never had such a hard time tracing anyone. He still seemed to have his usual sense of humor about him when he was presenting this information, but Jaehee thought it must be shaking him up more than he wanted to admit.

She glanced at her phone on her desk. If Seunghee had texted her back, it would have vibrated. It had been still and silent all morning, and yet Jaehee still kept checking, just in case. She picked up her phone quickly to check again. Still nothing, as expected. Why did she still feel so disappointed then?

“Assistant Kang.”

She jumped at the sound of Mr. Han’s voice. He hadn’t left his office since Jaehee came in to work this morning, and suddenly he was standing right at the edge of her desk. How did he sneak up on her? How could he move so quietly?

“Mr. Han! I was just looking over those reports you gave me,” she said, her face heating up. 

He glanced at the phone she was still holding up in front of her. She put it down slowly. 

“Did you book my flight to the cherry farm for tomorrow?” he asked. 

Jaehee blinked. “Oh. Yes. It’s scheduled to leave in the morning, at –”

“Cancel it.”

“Cancel it?” Jaehee repeated.

“Yes,” Mr. Han said.

“All right.” Jaehee’s tone was uncertain. She knew how much Mr. Han liked visiting the cherry farm. He had asked her to book his flight months in advance. “May I ask why?”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to be leaving right now,” Mr. Han said.

“Because of Seunghee?” Jaehee asked, before she could stop herself.

His eyes flashed. They didn’t usually discuss the RFA at work, as they both liked to keep them separate. But Mr. Han had been even more withdrawn than usual today, and now he was suddenly cancelling a trip that she knew he had been looking forward to for a long time. He was always a bit hard to read, but Jaehee suspected he was thinking about their new member.

“This isn’t the place to discuss RFA business, Assistant Kang,” he said.

She looked around the office. No one was paying them much attention. “I don’t think it matters very much.”

“Well, yes, I’m staying because of Seunghee.”

“Are you worried something may happen with her?” Jaehee asked.

“Assistant Kang –”

“You did say you trusted her, didn’t you?” Jaehee knew he was annoyed with her questions, but she couldn’t stop them.

“No, I said I trusted V,” Mr. Han said. “If he says she can be trusted, I’ll take his word for it.”

“Why don’t you want to leave then?”

“Are you trying to get rid of me, Assistant Kang? You might want to try being more subtle.”

Was Mr. Han making a joke? Those were rare for him. Then again, she didn’t get most of the ones he did make, so she might have been missing some. “I’m not trying to get rid of you, I just think it’s unusual for you to cancel your trip to the cherry farm. Weren’t you telling me just last week how important it was to get fresh cherries for Elizabeth?”

“Elizabeth the Third,” Mr. Han corrected her. “I hate to disappoint her, but she’ll have to wait for her cherries. I want to be here, just in case.”

In case some new piece of information came out about Seunghee or Unknown, she supposed. Or maybe something new about Rika, though that seemed unlikely. Jaehee wanted to say more about it, but she could tell that Mr. Han was tiring of the conversation. Plus, some of the other assistants had started looking in their direction. She knew they weren’t above eavesdropping.

“Okay, I’ll cancel your flight,” Jaehee said.

“Good. Have you eaten lunch yet?” he asked.

“Oh, no, I haven’t,” she said. It was well past the time she should have had her lunch, but she had been so distracted she had let it go by without noticing. “I was busy with, um – the reports.” Her eyes darted guiltily to her phone. It wasn’t that she hadn’t done any of her work today, of course she had, but her work wasn’t what had been occupying her thoughts.

“I’ll order something for you,” Mr. Han said, and turned abruptly, walking back to his office.

“Thank you,” Jaehee called after his retreating figure. 

Mr. Han must be very worried about the RFA, if he considered it even more important than Elizabeth’s cherries. If Mr. Han had had any serious concerns about Seunghee, he would have spoken up about it in the chatroom already. V was his closest and most trusted friend, but Mr. Han had never had difficulty being honest with V. Jaehee knew there were things that Mr. Han and V discussed outside of the chatroom, but if it was something that would affect the RFA directly, she was sure that Mr. Han wouldn’t keep it a secret from the rest of them.

Maybe Mr. Han was just being cautious. There was nothing wrong with that. She did wish she could speak to him more about Seunghee, but he probably wouldn’t like her to bring it up here. She could try after work, but he didn’t often like having conversations with her outside of work. The best place to bring it up would be the chatroom. Although Seunghee would see it.

But then, Seunghee must know they were all thinking about her. She must know that they were all curious about her, and the way she appeared in their lives. Despite how quickly she had been allowed to join the organization, she couldn’t believe that they would have no questions for her at all.

Jaehee cancelled Mr. Han’s flight. She wondered when he would want her to reschedule it for. Perhaps after the party, whenever that was. Or perhaps after Seunghee was no longer a novelty but a trusted member, however long that would take.

She sighed, staring down at the pile of documents in front of her. She really should get back to work.

First, she could check her phone just one more time, surely?

Still nothing from Seunghee.

*

Apparently Yoosung had finally given up on hounding Seven for information, because it was late into the morning now and Seven hadn’t heard from him in a few hours. He felt bad that he couldn’t have told Yoosung more, but at least he had been truthful. He really didn’t know more than what he’d told Yoosung on the phone.

Well, okay, maybe he hadn’t been entirely truthful. He had withheld a few things, but only because he wasn’t sure yet what it meant. It was true that he couldn’t find any activity from Seunghee on social media that wasn’t from over a year ago. This did strike him as odd, but he may not have thought much of it if only he had been able to find anything else on her. That was the problem. He couldn’t find _anything_.

Aside from her name and date of birth, and her abandoned social media pages, there didn’t seem to be any information on her. Nothing about what schools she had gone to, what she did for work, where she lived, who her family and friends were. It looked as though someone had done their best to erase every trace of her that existed. Why would someone do that?

Seunghee said that she didn’t know anything. Seven didn’t really believe that. He had accepted her story because V said they should, but the more he tried to look into Seunghee’s background and continuously came up with nothing, the more he felt that was a mistake. Instinct told him that V probably knew more than he was letting on and simply wasn’t telling them anything. Well, V was entitled to his secrets, but if it was something that would affect the whole RFA, didn’t he have an obligation to fill them in?

Seven put his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes and knocking his glasses askew. He was tired, but he refused to sleep. He had gone longer than this without sleep before. He could manage. 

Trying to find information about Seunghee had been frustrating enough, but there was also this Unknown person to deal with. Maybe it was Unknown who had erased everything about Seunghee. Seven couldn’t figure out why they would want to do that, though. Maybe Seunghee actually did know who Unknown was, and they were planning something together. Or maybe Seunghee was Unknown. Now that was a cool theory, and definitely plausible. Right?

“Fuck,” Seven said to himself, the word coming out muffled from beneath his hands. He had never had so much trouble tracing someone before. He had never come across a hacker who was as good as him. He didn’t want to admit it to anyone, but whoever Unknown was, they might even be _better_ than him.

He lifted his head from his hands and gave it a little shake. He had to snap out of it and get back to work. He would find something on Seunghee and Unknown, he told himself. And then he would actually have something to tell Yoosung when he inevitably called again.

No sooner had he thought that than his phone lit up with Yoosung’s name. He thought about ignoring the call, but it wouldn’t make a difference. Yoosung would call him back either way. He picked up and had barely gotten through saying hello when Yoosung started talking.

“Seven! Hi, sorry to bother you, I know you said you had to focus, but I just wondered –”

“If I found anything,” Seven said with a heavy sigh.

“Um, yeah,” Yoosung said. “Have you slept at all?”

“Why do you ask?”

“You sound like shit.”

“Whoa there,” Seven said. “It’s too early in the morning for language like that, don’t you think?”

“Morning?” Yoosung asked. “Seven, it’s four in the afternoon.”

What? No it wasn’t. Seven glanced at the time on his computer screen. Oh, it was in fact four in the afternoon. When did Yoosung become better at keeping track of the time than Seven was? “Well, it’s morning somewhere, probably.”

“Anyway,” Yoosung said with his own heavy sigh. “I had a feeling you wouldn’t have found anything yet, so I have another question for you.”

“Okay,” Seven said in surprise. His brain seemed to be moving slowly after the revelation that it was a lot later in the day than he had realized, so it took him a moment to process   
everything Yoosung had said. “Wait, what do you mean you thought I wouldn’t have found anything?”

“Anyway –”

“Don’t you have any faith in me?”

“ _Anyway_ , I was wondering if there was something I could do to help,” Yoosung said.

“Help?” Seven repeated. “I don’t know about that.”

“I hate just sitting around and waiting,” Yoosung said. “Is there really nothing I can do?” 

“Not that I can think of. I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”

“Right. Okay.”

The resigned disappointment in Yoosung’s tone made Seven feel bad. He wished he did have something for Yoosung to do, if only to get him to cheer up a bit. He thought about making up some task for Yoosung, but he thought that would only seem condescending.

“Sorry, Yoosung,” Seven said.

“It’s fine. I should let you get back to work.” Yoosung paused. “No, wait. Get some sleep first.”

“I can’t sleep, I have to track Unknown. You want me to find something fast, don’t you?”

“I’d rather you sleep first,” Yoosung said. “It’s not good for you to work on such little sleep.”

“Yeah. Sure,” Seven said, trying to mask the yawn that had escaped him. “What did you say your usual gaming hours were again? Ten P.M to four A.M?”

“So what? I probably still sleep more regularly than you."

Actually, Seven couldn’t argue with that. “Fine, I’ll sleep for two hours, and then go back to work. Happy?”

“It’s something, at least,” Yoosung said. “Bye, Seven. And good luck.”

“Yeah, thanks. Bye.” Seven hung up. He should sleep, but he wasn’t even sure he’d be able to. He was too focused on Seunghee and Unknown to sleep. Them, and Rika.

He knew why Yoosung was so desperate for answers. It was because, like the whole RFA, no one could help thinking about Rika. Her death had been hard on all of them, and despite what Yoosung thought, he was pretty sure none of them were really over it yet. They were all just dealing with it differently. Jumin had closed himself off from everyone, as he had always done. Zen had channelled his grief into his work. Jaehee hadn’t been close enough to Rika to be affected as deeply as the rest of them. Seven… well, he had dealt with it the same way he dealt with everything. Pushed it down, tried to forget, returned to making stupid jokes as quickly as possible.

But Seven definitely wasn’t over Rika’s death. He still thought of Rika as the pretty girl he had met at church, who had reached out to him before anyone else did, who had given him food to take home to his brother and done everything she could to help them in small ways. She had even helped give him his new name, Luciel.

He remembered a few weeks after he had first befriended Rika, he had asked about her name. It didn’t sound Korean, and he had wondered what it meant. She had told him that it wasn’t her birth name, but a name she had chosen for herself.

“It’s a Norse name. It means ‘forever strong’,” Rika had told him. “I… don’t like to use my birth name. I don’t even want to tell you what it is.” 

“Why not?” he had asked. “I mean, why don’t you like your birth name?”

“I don’t like the people who gave it to me,” Rika had said. “I don’t get along well with my parents, I’m sure you can understand that.” He could still remember how sad her smile was when she looked at him. “I claimed emancipation from them when I was fifteen, and since then I’ve always gone by ‘Rika’. My birth name is associated with very bad memories now. I prefer ‘Rika’, because to me it represents independence, and a new life away from the hell I grew up in. And I think if my name means ‘forever strong’… maybe I can be.”

She never did tell him what her birth name was. It was likely she never told anyone, except maybe V. Seven had never tried to get it out of her, though. He had understood Rika’s desire to go by a name other than the one she was given by her parents. He understood having bad memories tied to his name, and wanting to live as someone else. It was why he had always much preferred to be called Luciel.

He sighed heavily. Seunghee showing up in her apartment so suddenly only made his memories of Rika more powerful, and more painful. It was like reopening a wound that had never fully healed. He was sure it was the same for everyone.

He got up and went to his room. As he lay across his bed, he realized he had been right to think sleep would be impossible for him now. He closed his eyes anyway, but Seunghee’s and Rika’s images were still far too bright.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, there is mention of self-harm and suicide attempts early in this chapter. They're not super graphic or descriptive, but I thought it would be good to warn people just in case.

_She lay on her side on the ground, in a pool of her own blood. It was still pouring from the wound on her neck, seemingly without end. It was getting all over her dress, her skin. Even her hair that was fanned out around her was saturated with blood._

_“Most would have died by now,” the vampire said. “Why won’t you die, blondie?”_

_Yes, why wouldn’t she die? She would soon, she could feel it. Her vision was dimming, and she felt so cold. So cold. She was dying, she knew it. She didn’t even mind too much. She felt sorry for V and for the RFA, but not for herself. She only wished the vampire would leave her alone, and let her die in peace._

_“Maybe you don’t want to die,” the vampire said. “Is that it?”_

_What? No, she wanted this. She was pretty sure she did, at least. It would mean she could see Sally again. It would mean an end to the pain._

_In her mind she could hear her adoptive mother, yelling at her that she was a freak and a monster. She heard herself crying, saying that she couldn’t take it anymore, that she wanted to die, and would take her own life if she had to. Her adoptive mother would say that she wasn’t really suicidal, she was faking everything, a weirdo seeking pity for her own faults. Sometimes she thought that that must be true, because for all of her tears and screams and supposed breaking points, she never did get further than a few cuts to her wrists. The scars were still visible, but she had never let them kill her. In the end, she was too afraid._

_Was she still afraid? Was that why she wasn’t dying? No, please, let her die._

_The vampire’s cold hand was under her head now, lifting it up just a bit. It was difficult to focus, but she soon realized that the vampire’s other hand was being offered to her. At first she thought it was her own blood that had touched the vampire’s palm, but she realized that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t her blood._

_“If you don’t want to die, drink my blood.”_

_Drink the vampire’s blood? If she didn’t want to die… drink the vampire’s blood. And then what? How would that save her?_

_“If you want a new life, drink my blood.”_

_A new life… yes. That was what she wanted. She didn’t want to die, she wanted to live as someone other than herself. She could keep going, as long as she was not herself._

_“I thought you would be weak when I saw you crying, but maybe you’re stronger than I thought,” the vampire said. “You must be, you’re not even afraid right now, are you? Well, you’ll never have to be afraid of anything again. No one would be able to hurt you. Whatever you were crying about earlier, it wouldn’t matter anymore.”_

_She struggled to bring herself closer to the vampire’s hand. It must have realized what she wanted, because it pressed its palm against her lips, and Rika opened them gratefully.  
_

_As soon as the blood touched her tongue, she was hit with a sudden burst of energy. She could support her head on her own now, and her arms, which had been incapable of moving before, suddenly reached out to hold the vampire by its wrist. A quiet moan escaped her mouth as she drank the blood. It was like nothing she had ever tasted before. She wasn’t sure it tasted good, exactly, but she knew she never wanted to stop drinking it. She couldn’t get enough of it, and no amount would satiate her. It was like life itself, and if she stopped she wouldn’t survive._

_But she had to stop when the vampire suddenly pulled its hand away. “That’s enough.”_

_Already she could feel the energy leeching from her. No, it wasn’t enough, she wanted to say, if only she could find her voice. She needed more. She struggled to sit up, putting her hands in the pool of blood around her and pushing herself up. She managed it, but when she sought out the vampire she couldn’t find it. It had left her alone._

_She sighed and closed her eyes. New life. What would that mean? She began lazily trailing her fingers through the blood around her. It was her own, but she felt strangely detached from it._

_As she sat there, she became very aware of her own heartbeat. It was so loud she was sure that if she wasn’t alone, it would be audible to anyone around her. It was accelerating quickly, too, beating faster than she had ever known it could beat, as if it was trying to burst out of her chest. It was becoming painful, and her hands came up to clutch at her chest, her fingers digging into her own skin, unsure whether they wanted to still her heart or rip it from her body._

_How long this went, she couldn’t tell, but suddenly it seemed to be slowing down. Yes, it was definitely getting slower, frighteningly slow, until it stopped entirely._

_She dug her fingers into her skin more. She waited for it to start beating again, but it didn’t. It was still and quiet, and she almost felt as though she didn’t have a heart at all._

_Her heart had stopped, but her body was still painful, and it only seemed to be getting worse. Her insides felt like they were on fire, and her mouth was in agony. She found herself doubled over, her hands splayed out in the pool of blood. Her eyes squeezed shut and her mouth was open, but her scream died in her throat._

__

__

_She heard the sounds of something small and light hitting the ground, and she forced herself to open her eyes. When they focused, she found herself staring at her own teeth. Four of them. They had fallen out of her mouth, and she could feel new ones growing in their place._

*

The next few days all passed in the same way. Seunghee didn’t come online at all during the day, she wouldn’t even answer any calls or texts, but she would log in at all hours of the night, or so it seemed. Jaehee found herself staying up later than she should have most nights, just so she could talk with Seunghee. She had to admit, she had taken a liking to their new member quickly. It seemed like Seunghee had managed to fit in and get along with everyone in no time at all. She had adjusted to being in the RFA much faster than Jaehee had, but Jaehee couldn’t be bitter about it. Something about Seunghee drew her in and kept her, and she just wanted to talk to her as much as she could.

Jaehee could tell that the other members felt similarly. Nobody was sharing any doubts about Seunghee, no one had anything bad to say about her. Even Mr. Han seemed to like her, and even Seven, despite still being frustrated that he hadn’t found anything, could be found joking around with Seunghee like they were the best of friends. Somehow Seunghee knew exactly what to say and how to get along with all of them.

Although, Jaehee did like to think that Seunghee favored her, just a bit. She felt a bit childish for feeling that way, but Jaehee got the sense that Seunghee liked her just a bit more, enjoyed talking with her just a bit more, perhaps even waited for her every night. Jaehee hoped she wasn’t imagining it.

The only thing that still nagged at her was that Seunghee was very secretive, and she didn’t seem to want to volunteer information about herself at all. She would become cold and vague whenever anyone asked her something personal, and would remain so until the subject was changed. Jaehee didn’t want to think the worst of their new member, but she still wanted to be cautious, and it did seem like Seunghee was hiding something from them.

Most times when Jaehee went into the chatroom, the members would be trying to guess what Seunghee did during the day. She couldn’t blame everyone for being curious, but it was becoming a bit tiresome. It felt as though they had been over every possibility multiple times already, as well as several impossibilities, such as the one Luciel was now suggesting.

**707: Maybe she’s a vampire**

**Jaehee Kang: I think you read too many fantasy novels**

**Yoosung: lol yeah**

**707: Doesn’t it make sense when you think about it though?**

**707: It would explain why she only talks to us at night**

**707: and why she won’t tell us what she does during the day**

**707: and why we never see her eat**

**Jaehee Kang: Of course we never see her eat…**

**Jaehee Kang: We’ve never met her.**

**707: and why she never shares photos of herself with us.**

**Yoosung: Didn’t you say you saw her photo the night she joined?**

**Jaehee Kang: Yes, when he did a background check on her.**

**707: That wasn’t a background check.**

**707: Anyway, you have to admit there’s something weird about her.**

**Jaehee Kang: Well… if there is, you would have found it and told us by now, right?**

**707: Nah~ I’m respecting her privacy, remember?**

**Jaehee Kang: I don’t believe you care about privacy**

**Yoosung: You don’t care about her privacy**

**Yoosung: We all know you’ve been looking for stuff about her**

**Yoosung: You just haven’t found anything yet**

**Jaehee Kang: lol**

**707: ANYWAY**

**707: She’s definitely a vampire**

**707: Jaehee, you know her pretty well, can’t you tell?**

**Jaehee Kang: … No.**

**707: Yoosung~ You believe me right~**

**Yoosung: …**

**Yoosung: Could she really be a vampire?**

**Jaehee Kang: Are you serious?**

**Yoosung: Seven is right, it would explain a lot!**

**Jaehee Kang: My God**

**707: Aha! See?**

**Jaehee Kang: You two are joking, right?**

**Jaehee Kang: I should never expect Luciel to make any sense but**

**Jaehee Kang: Yoosung, you can’t be this naïve.**

**Yoosung: I’m not saying I believe it!**

**Yoosung: I’m just saying…**

**Yoosung: if it is a possibility…**

**Jaehee Kang: It’s NOT**

**Jaehee Kang: I can’t believe I have to say this but**

**Jaehee Kang: Vampires don’t exist**

**707: That’s what they said about werewolves**

**Yoosung: Werewolves?!**

**Jaehee Kang: … which also don’t exist**

**707: That’s what they said about longcat, but guess who’s coming to the party? ******

******Jaehee Kang: What?** ** **

******707: lolol I already asked Seunghee and she said she’d invite it** ** **

******Jaehee Kang: This conversation is useless** ** **

******Jaehee Kang: I’m leaving now, I have to go to work soon anyway** ** **

******Jaehee Kang: Goodbye** ** **

Jaehee sighed as she put her phone down. Really, Luciel’s jokes were too much at times. And she knew Yoosung was naïve, but he couldn’t really think anything Luciel was saying could be true, surely. She wondered what Seunghee would think of the conversation when she saw it. She seemed to have a good sense of humor about most things, so Jaehee hoped she wouldn’t be too bothered by this. 

Jaehee didn’t have time to think too much about Seunghee, she had to get to work and focus on that. They would probably find out everything they wanted to about Seunghee when they met her at the party. All of their guesswork wasn’t getting them anywhere, and apparently they couldn’t even be bothered to come up with believable ideas anymore. 

* 

It was hard to tell when it was a good time to call Seunghee, but Jaehee was getting pretty good at guessing when Seunghee would be available. She had called Seunghee every night since the first night, and it had quickly become the thing she most looked forward to. 

Seunghee must have been used to Jaehee calling her by now, because this time the phone only had to ring once before Seunghee’s voice was greeting her warmly. “Hi, Jaehee.” 

“Hello, Seunghee,” Jaehee said. “V was online earlier, I don’t know if you saw.” 

“I read the messages,” Seunghee said. “The party date has been set.” 

“Yes, and it’s only a week from now…. I don’t know why it had to be so soon. I hope you’re not too nervous.” 

“Oh, I’m fine,” Seunghee said, and Jaehee had to admire how confident she sounded. 

“I can’t wait to meet you in person,” Jaehee said. She then felt a bit awkward about having said that. “You know, we all can’t wait to meet you.” 

Seunghee laughed. “I can’t wait to meet all of you too. You in particular, Jaehee.” 

Jaehee had to grip her phone tightly to keep it from slipping out of her hand. 

“But, um, I won’t be able to make it to the party,” Seunghee said. 

“What?” The word came out louder than Jaehee had intended. She kept her voice quieter for what she said next. “You have to be at the party, you’re our coordinator! You’re the whole reason we’re having this party.” 

“I know, I’m sorry.” To her credit, Seunghee did sound genuinely apologetic. “But, the party is at noon, right? I can’t go then.” 

Jaehee knew Seunghee wouldn’t tell her, but she had to ask, “Why not?” 

“I just can’t.” Seunghee’s tone made it quite clear that that was as much as Jaehee was going to get out of her. Of course. 

Luciel’s vampire theory came unbidden into Jaehee’s mind, but she dismissed it quickly. She was only thinking about it because it was so late, it was still a ridiculous idea. 

“Seunghee, I meant to ask,” Jaehee began slowly. “Did you see what Luciel said earlier?” 

“You mean about me being a vampire?” Seunghee asked cheerfully. 

“Um, yes. That.” 

Seunghee laughed. “Seven is so funny.” 

“That’s one way to describe him,” Jaehee said. At least Seunghee could laugh about it instead of taking offense. Jaehee felt silly for even bringing it up. “You know… I am really sorry that you can’t make it to the party. It’s unfortunate, since you’re putting so much work into it.” 

“That, and I’d really like to meet you,” Seunghee said, her voice low. 

A warm tingle traveled through Jaehee’s body. “I’d like to meet you too.” 

For a moment, there was a tense silence between them, and then Seunghee said, “Then why don’t we meet?” 

Jaehee couldn’t have heard that right. “Excuse me?” 

“Since I won’t be at the party,” Seunghee said, suddenly sounding flustered. “If you want to… we should meet.” 

“But… when?” 

“Right now?” 

“Right now?” Jaehee repeated. “It’s very late.” 

“It’s not that late,” Seunghee said dismissively. 

“I don’t think we’re allowed to meet yet.” 

“Nobody ever said we weren’t allowed to meet. And why would we need anyone’s permission anyway?” 

Jaehee bit her lip. What Seunghee was suggesting was tempting. And she was right, there shouldn’t have been anything stopping them from meeting. Even so, something about it felt so… rebellious. Maybe it was because she still knew so little about Seunghee, or because it was so dark out, but just contemplating the idea of meeting her felt like she was breaking some unspoken rule. 

“I really want to see you, Jaehee,” Seunghee said. 

“Okay, let’s meet then,” Jaehee said, and she hoped that Seunghee wouldn’t hear the tremble in her voice. 

They made plans to meet at a park near Jaehee’s apartment. Jaehee fumbled a bit when she hung up the phone. She didn’t like the idea of walking in the dark by herself, and she wasn’t sure what to expect when she saw Seunghee. 

This is a stupid idea, she thought as she put on her jacket. It was a stupid idea to meet up with someone she had never met before this late in the evening. She knew it, and the more she thought about it the more she wanted to text Seunghee to say she had changed her mind. Her phone was in her hand. Why didn’t she do it? 

She knew she wasn’t going to cancel on Seunghee. She wanted to meet her so badly. She ignored the anxious voice in her head telling her how stupid this was, and headed out the door. 

She walked faster than usual that night, and she couldn’t tell if it was due to nerves or excitement. Maybe a bit of both. There weren’t many people out when she reached the park, so it didn’t take long for Jaehee to spot the person who had to be Seunghee. She looked just like she had described herself to Jaehee, and she was waving at her, so it couldn’t be anyone else. 

“Jaehee!” Seunghee greeted her as she approached. Seunghee gave Jaehee a quick once over and smiled. “You’re even prettier in person.” 

Jaehee laughed. No one had ever greeted her as enthusiastically as Seunghee just had. It felt nice. Strange, but nice. “Thanks, so are you.” Not that Jaehee had any photos of Seunghee for comparison. 

Seunghee had described herself to Jaehee on the phone, but her appearance was still something of a surprise to Jaehee. There was a part of her that had been expecting Seunghee to resemble Rika. She didn’t – with her short brown hair, tan skin, and amber eyes – but there was something in her smile, and the gleam in her eyes, that was reminiscent of Rika. Maybe Jaehee was only seeing what she wanted to. 

“Thanks for coming, I’m really happy to meet you,” Seunghee said. 

“Oh, of course,” Jaehee said. “I was pretty nervous about coming, but I wanted to see you too.” 

“Are you still nervous?” 

“A little bit. It’s just… I don’t really like being out after dark, but it’s not so bad as long as we’re together.” 

They started to walk up the park trail. Jaehee wracked her brain for something she could say to Seunghee. Would she be more open if they were not in the chatroom? Even when they talked on the phone, she never shared much about herself, but maybe she would be different in person.

“Jaehee, do you like having me in the RFA?” Seunghee asked.

Jaehee was a bit taken aback by the sudden question, but her answer came quickly. “Yes, I do. I’ve really enjoyed talking to you these last few days.” She hesitated before continuing, “Though I suppose it’s a bit strange that I’ve taken such a liking to you. I don’t really know that much about you, after all.”

“Hm,” Seunghee said. “I really like talking to you too, Jaehee.”

“I’m glad,” Jaehee said, though she couldn’t help noting that Seunghee had ignored the second part of what she had said. “Can I ask you something?”

Seunghee’s reply came after a short pause. “Sure.”

Really, there were a lot of things Jaehee wanted to ask her. She decided to start with something that wasn’t too invasive. “Why did you ask me to meet you here? I mean… why me, specifically? Why not anyone else in the RFA?”

“Because I like you,” Seunghee said.

“Do you not like the other members?” Jaehee asked.

Seunghee laughed, and Jaehee noticed that her canine teeth were unusually sharp. “I like all of you, of course, but there’s something about you in particular. You’re special.”

Jaehee didn’t know what to say, but she hoped Seunghee couldn’t see how much she was blushing in the dark. She had never had anyone who considered her special before, and she wasn’t sure how to handle hearing it now. She was glad, though, that she had been right to think that Seunghee favored her. 

“Can you really not make it to the party?” Jaehee asked. 

“I really can’t.”

“Can you tell me why?”

“I’ll be busy,” Seunghee said. 

“What are you always so busy with?” Jaehee realized that she may be pushing too much. She had been patient with Seunghee in the chatroom and on the phone, but now that she was seeing Seunghee in person, it was hard to hold back her questions. “I’m always busy too, but I still come to the chatroom more often than you do, and I’m still going to the party.”

“Jaehee, trust me, I’d really like to tell you,” Seunghee said. “You’ll find out soon enough. Let’s not talk about me right now, okay?”

“How can I trust you if you won’t tell me anything?” Jaehee demanded. Seunghee’s secretive act was getting tiresome. She took a deep breath. “All I want to know is why you won’t come to the party. Can’t you tell me that, at least?”

Seunghee hesitated before she answered. “Jaehee, can I be honest with you?”

“I wish you would be,” Jaehee said.

“I don’t think the party really matters.”

Jaehee stopped in her tracks, and Seunghee stopped too. Seunghee was watching Jaehee carefully, waiting for her to react, but Jaehee was having difficulty choosing her words. She couldn’t believe what Seunghee had just said. The party didn’t matter? How could she say that? Didn’t she know how much the party meant to all of them?

“How could – what do you mean the party doesn’t matter?”

At least Seunghee had the decency to look sheepish. “That came out wrong.”

“Did it? How was it supposed to come out, then?” Jaehee asked.

“I just think – don’t you think it’s weird that we’re having the party so soon?” Seunghee asked.

“I thought you said you were fine with it,” Jaehee said. “If this is all because you’re feeling pressured, I’m sure V would change the party date if you asked.”

Seunghee snorted. “He wouldn’t. And I don’t feel any pressure, I just think it’s weird. Why so soon?”

Jaehee thought for a minute before answering. “Well, maybe it’s because it’s your first party.”

“Does that really make sense to you?” Seunghee asked. “If he was worried about it being my first party, wouldn’t he want to give me more time, not less?”

She did have a point. “Well. He said he wanted this party to be smaller,” Jaehee said.

“Why do you think that is?” Seunghee asked.

“I – I don’t know,” Jaehee said haltingly. Why was Seunghee pressing this so hard? She didn’t understand what point she was trying to make. “Will you just tell me where you’re going with this?”

“V doesn’t tell you guys anything, does he?” Seunghee asked. “How can you trust him when he has so many secrets?”

“Well. You have a lot of secrets too,” Jaehee said. “And I don’t know if he has that many secrets.”

“He does,” Seunghee said, and the certainty in her voice was alarming. “And he’s your leader. Are you really okay with him hiding so much from all of you? And he’s barely around anymore, right? Don’t you want to know where he is, or what he’s doing?”

“It’s not our business.” Jaehee wished they could change the subject. Seunghee’s insistence was uncomfortable, especially because Jaehee found she was having a difficult time arguing with her. It wasn’t like this topic hadn’t been mined before. Even before Seungee arrived, the RFA had had discussion about this in the chatroom, most of them started by Yoosung, but this time felt different. Jaehee didn’t like to question V too much, no one really did. Maybe that was strange, but she didn’t like what Seunghee was suggesting. She didn’t like the idea that their leader was untrustworthy, and she didn’t like that Seunghee was speaking so assuredly about it. “Seunghee… what makes you so certain about this?”

“I know people well,” Seunghee said. “Well enough to know when they’re hiding something.”

Jaehee shook her head. “I think you’re wrong. And I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

“You shouldn’t trust V.”

“But I should trust you? Why? I barely know you!” Jaehee cried.

“Do you know V much better?”

“That’s enough,” Jaehee said sharply. “Seunghee, I really don’t want to talk about this anymore.”

Seunghee huffed in frustration. Jaehee had never heard Seunghee speak as passionately as she had tonight, had never known her to get so emotional. Her intensity was a bit scary, and as the argument went on Jaehee noted the change in Seunghee’s expression. Her eyes had become intense and glowing, her teeth bared and her features pulled back in a snarl that looked strangely animalistic. Her teeth… now that Jaehee was getting a good look at them… they really were strangely sharp…

“There’s so much you don’t know, Jaehee” Seunghee insisted. She reached out to take Jaehee’s hands, and Jaehee flinched at her touch. Seunghee backed away quickly, her expression having changed to one of shock. She looked like an animal caught in headlights.

“Your hands are like ice!” Jaehee said. “Are you cold?” Though it was a fairly warm evening.

“No, I’m fine,” Seunghee said, sounding rattled. She wrapped her arms around herself and sighed. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean to pick a fight with you. I just… I’ve had a lot on my mind since I joined, you know?”

“Of course,” Jaehee said. So many thoughts were running through her head as she looked at Seunghee. Perhaps she had thought that meeting her in person might ease some of the doubts she still had about her, but it was only making her more confused. What had just happened? She wouldn’t have expected Seunghee to have such a temper, she certainly never expected that she could be so frightening. 

“I’m sorry,” Seunghee said, sounding genuinely distressed. Her body seemed to sag as her anger dissipated. She suddenly seemed so small, so nonthreatening. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t,” Jaehee said. “Well, that’s not true. You did.”

“I’m sorry,” Seunghee repeated.

“I know,” Jaehee said. 

They stood in silence and Jaehee tried to gather her thoughts. Right before Seunghee had grabbed Jaehee’s hand, she had said something that Jaehee didn’t like. _There’s so much you don’t know._ What did that mean? It sounded like Seunghee was implying that she knew something, some secret that the rest of the RFA didn’t. If that was true… but how could it be true? Had Seunghee been lying to them, did she know V after all? Did she know Rika? Or Unknown?

She wanted to ask Seunghee what she meant - no, she wanted to _demand_ answers from her. About what she had been saying about V, and especially about her. She wanted to keep Seunghee here all night and not let her out of sight until she told Jaehee everything. Because while she still wanted to believe the best of Seunghee, she couldn’t believe that her being sent to Rika’s apartment was simply a strange turn of fate. And her erratic behavior tonight needed more than an apology. It needed an explanation. Didn’t Jaehee deserve that, at the very least?

“Seunghee, tell me what you meant,” Jaehee said. “What don’t I know?”

Now that Seunghee’s frustration had apparently passed, she didn’t seem very eager to stay on this subject. She didn’t seem eager to talk at all. She looked exhausted, and puzzled, as if even she was surprised by all that had just happened. This didn’t seem very fair to Jaehee, since Seunghee was the one who had insisted on starting this dialogue anyway. She didn’t get to suddenly decide not to take part in it, but it seemed that was exactly what she was doing when she said her next words.

“Forget it.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jaehee asked indignantly.

“Not tonight, okay? Please, Jaehee.”

Jaehee sighed, not knowing what to say. She felt exhausted too. Part of her wanted nothing more than to go home, and the other part of her didn’t want Seunghee leaving her sight. She was disappointed by the turn the night had taken. She wished they could start it over, and avoid their argument entirely, so Jaehee wouldn’t have to feel the way she was feeling now. 

“This isn’t how I wanted our first meeting to go,” Jaehee said before she could stop herself.

“Yeah, me too,” Seunghee said. “If you want me to, I’ll walk you home. I don’t really want to be out anymore.”

“Neither do I.” They turned and walked back up the park trail in silence. 

Seunghee was tense the whole way home, her head cast down and her eyes on the ground. Jaehee still wanted to question her, but she knew it would be pointless now. Whatever had possessed Seunghee to share her thoughts so openly a moment ago had now passed, and Jaehee could tell she was back to her reclusive self. This was all the more frustrating to Jaehee. She had gotten Seunghee talking just long enough for an argument to come up, and then Seunghee had immediately shut down again.

Their hands brushed against each other as they walked, and Jaehee noted again how cold Seunghee’s was. She suddenly couldn’t stop thinking about how Seunghee’s hand had felt around hers, and the strange thing was, she wanted to feel it again. It was troubling how much Seunghee affected her already, especially considering what had happened before that… Seunghee really had been frightening. Her sharp eyes, her almost bestial expression, her fangs –

The word pulled Jaehee up short. Fangs? Where had that come from? She meant teeth, of course. Seunghee had teeth, not fangs. Though there might not be a difference, technically. It was only because Jaehee was tired, and because it had been such a strange and stressful night. That was why she was thinking about this. No other reason.

When they reached Jaehee’s building, they turned to face each other.

“I’m sorry I was so weird tonight,” Seunghee said.

“To be honest, you’re always a bit weird,” Jaehee said. “Are you sure you’ll be okay getting back to Rika’s apartment?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about me.”

“You could stay the night at my place,” Jaehee offered. “I’m worried about you walking back alone.”

“Thanks, but that’s not a good idea,” Seunghee said with a smile. “I’ll be fine, really. Good night, Jaehee.”

Jaehee had the feeling that Seunghee was trying to get rid of her. “Good night.” She opened the door but hesitated before walking inside. “Can we do this again tomorrow night?” she asked.

Seunghee’s eyes widened. “Oh. Of course. I’m just… I didn’t think you would want to. But yeah, tomorrow then.”

“Okay, good night.” Jaehee went inside and started walking up the stairs to her apartment. She stopped after one flight and looked back. She could still see the door from where she stood, and she could also see Seunghee still behind it, watching her. Jaehee waved and Seunghee waved back, but didn’t move from her spot on the other side of the door. Jaehee kept climbing the stairs. She had thought about following Seunghee in secret for a bit, but she suspected that Seunghee was anticipating that. Well, Jaehee probably wouldn’t have done it anyway. Probably.

It didn’t matter, Jaehee thought as she stepped into her apartment. She would meet with Seunghee tomorrow night, and she would make sure that they didn’t leave each other’s company until she knew who Seunghee was.


	4. Chapter 4

_When she finally got up and started making her way back to V’s apartment, the streets were completely abandoned. This was good, because she knew she must be a horrific sight. She was covered in blood. It had soaked her dress and caked her skin and matted her hair into clumps. She could hardly bring herself to care, however. Not when she was this thirsty. Her throat was burning and every attempt to swallow was painful. She knew what she needed, but how could she get it when there was no one around? Even if she did come across someone, could she bring herself to attack them? The thought of biting someone still repulsed her._

_So, this was her “new life”. The vampire who had made her like this had disappeared before explaining anything to her, and she felt completely lost. She had been given a choice, she supposed, and this was the one she had made. She didn’t feel much different. She didn’t miss Sally any less, or feel any happier._

_The night, however, was amazing in this new life. Her senses were so much sharper now, allowing her to see more, and hear more, and smell more. She could see much further and much more clearly in the dark than she could have as a human. She could hear sounds that she wouldn’t have been able to pick up on before, like the buzzing of insects’ wings. She could hear the low hum of music coming from a bar long after she had left it behind her. And she could smell people, even when they were hidden inside buildings. Their scents lingered in the air everywhere she went, and it only made her thirst more painful._

_She reached V’s building, and for a moment thought she might not be able to get inside. Wasn’t there an old piece of vampire lore that said she couldn’t enter anywhere she wasn’t invited to? Just which parts of the myths were true? She would have to figure it out on her own, or perhaps try to track down another vampire to help her. She entered the building easily, however, and made her way up to the apartment._

_She was feeling nervous now. V said he would always love her, no matter how ugly she was. Would that still be true, when he saw what she had become? She supposed that now he would be tested, and she would see how genuine his love for her was._

_When she opened the door, she forgot it would be locked. It didn’t matter, she was strong enough now that she could push it open, breaking the lock without even trying, which was what happened. She gasped in alarm, wondering what the limitations of her strength were. How careful did she need to be?_

_Of course the noise woke him up, if he wasn’t already awake, and he came out of the bedroom to see what was going on. His jaw dropped open as soon as he saw her. Neither of them moved for a while, they simply stared at each other, neither able to speak. She hated the look he was giving her, hated what she saw in those mint-colored eyes. He looked horrified. Disgusted. Terrified. Like he was seeing a monster._

_She took a few steps toward him and then stopped. He still wouldn’t move. At least he wasn’t backing away from her. He wouldn’t take his eyes off her.  
_

_Rika finally broke the silence, uttering her first words since the vampire had attacked her. “Do you still love me when I’m like this? Can you still love me like this?”_

_It was a long time before he said anything, and it wasn’t an answer to her question. “Rika, what happened to you?”_

_Was he avoiding her question? She closed the distance between them. “You must still love me, V. You promised you would no matter what. You must still love me!” She heard the hysteria in her voice, but she couldn’t control it. Being this close to him was making it hard to think._

_She could hear his heartbeat, the only one in the room._

_And she could smell the metallic scent of his blood._

_His lips were moving, but she couldn’t make out any words. She could only focus on the pounding of his heart, and his scent, and the burning in her throat. She shouldn’t be this close to him. Not now._

_He lifted one of his hands, he was probably trying to touch her face, but she grabbed his hand in both of hers. She held it tightly, and it must have hurt, because he was struggling to pull it away from her. She could feel his pulse in his wrist._

_She wasn’t aware of how it had happened, wasn’t aware of the action as she performed it, but the next thing she knew she was tasting his blood in her mouth, having punctured the skin of his wrist with her fangs._

*

By the next morning, Jaehee wasn’t entirely sure what to think of what had happened last night. She was a bit embarrassed that for a moment, she had actually considered Seven’s vampire theory. There was definitely something strange about Seunghee, but no way was it anything supernatural. She had just gotten carried away. Wasn’t it common to become more emotional at night? That’s all it was, and she had simply let her emotions override logic. 

She yawned and tried to take a sip of her still too hot coffee. She hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep last night. She rarely got that much sleep anyway, but she didn’t even have work as an excuse this time. She spent most of the night tossing and turning and thinking about what had happened in the park. What little sleep she had gotten… she vaguely remembered dreaming about Seunghee, but she couldn’t remember what it had been about. All she did remember was that fangs had featured in them prominently.

Before she had to leave for work, she checked the chatroom as she usually did. No Seunghee, of course, but Mr. Han and Seven were both there.

**707: Jaehee, Jumin…**

**Jaehee Kang: Good morning.**

**707: Something strange happened last night**

**Jumin Han: What did you do?**

**Jaehee Kang: lol**

**707: Omg**

**707: Anyway**

**707: So, you know how I’ve been keeping an eye on the cctv at Rika’s apartment?**

**Jaehee Kang: We didn’t know that. Have you been spying on Seunghee?**

**707: No!**

**707: I just look at the cameras outside, to make sure nothing weird happens.**

**Jumin Han: And?**

**707: Well, someone disabled the cameras last night**

**Jaehee Kang: What??**

**707: Ya**

**707: Only for like an hour, but still**

**Jumin Han: Is Seunghee okay?**

**707: Yeah, she’s fine**

**707: I don’t even think she was in the apartment when it happened**

**707: I know she left the apartment at around 10pm**

Jaehee was relieved to know that Seunghee hadn’t been in the apartment while the cameras were disabled. It sounded like someone had been trying to enter without anyone knowing. She wondered if she should mention that Seunghee had left to meet her, but she didn’t know if that was something that Seunghee wanted kept secret or not.

**Jumin Han: Should we find it strange that she left?**

****

****

**Jaehee Kang: I don’t think so. Did we expect her to stay in the apartment all the time?**

****

**Jumin Han: What do you think Luciel?**

**707: It’s not that weird, I guess**

**Jaehee Kang: What time were the cameras disabled?**

**707: At around midnight**  


**707: I didn’t see her come back inside before it happened**  


**707: I got the cameras working again at around 2am**  


**707: She was back by then**  


**Jaehee Kang: You saw her? Was anyone else there?**  


**707: No one else was there, just her**  


**707: When I called her, she said she hadn’t seen anything**  


**Jumin Han: Is it still safe for her to stay there?**  


**707: I’m not sure… it should have been perfectly safe**  


**707: She said she would be fine, but I don’t know**  


**707: She didn’t seem to want me going over there, but I think I’ll have to**  


**707: If someone got in, the security system must be faulty, and that’s… not good**  


**707: I’ll start keeping a closer eye on the apartment**  


Jaehee suspected that whoever disabled the cameras was the same hacker who had led Seunghee to the apartment in the first place. It was worrying to think that someone could have it out for the RFA, and she hoped that Seunghee wasn’t in any danger. She also hoped that Seunghee wasn’t a danger to them herself.  


She left the chatroom after saying a quick goodbye to Seven and assuring Mr. Han that she was on her way to work. She downed the rest of her coffee and headed out the door. She was actually grateful to have to work today. It would be a welcome distraction from her thoughts about Seunghee.  


*  


The hours seemed to tick by so slowly that day. Even when Jaehee got back home from work, time didn’t pass any more quickly. She tried distracting herself by watching a musical, and then by reading the new book she had bought for herself last week and not started yet. When neither of those worked she just sat on her sofa, occasionally checking her phone, though she wasn’t sure what for. She knew Seunghee wouldn’t contact her before nightfall.  


After what felt like an eternity, it got late enough that she was sure it would be okay to call Seunghee. Her fingers were shaking as she dialed the number and she could barely hold on to her phone. It rang several times. Just when Jaehee had assumed that Seunghee wasn’t going to answer, she did.  


“Hi, Seunghee,” Jaehee said. “I just wanted to make sure we were still meeting tonight.”  


0

“Yes, of course we are. If you still want to, I mean.”  


“Oh, I do,” Jaehee said. She hoped she didn’t sound too eager. “It’s just… um, did you see Seven’s messages?”  


“I did.” Seunghee didn’t sound particularly concerned.  


“Aren’t you scared?” Jaehee asked.  


“No,” Seunghee said. She sounded so defiant, it caught Jaehee off guard for a minute. “I want to see you again.”  


“So do I,” Jaehee said. She did, but it was a bit surprising, and a bit suspicious, that Seunghee didn’t seem to care at all about what Seven had talked about. Maybe she was scared and was simply hiding it very well. “Seunghee, did you… did you see anything last night?”  


Predictably, Seunghee’s answer was very succinct. “No.”  


_I don’t believe you,_ Jaehee wanted to say, but instead she said, “So where should we meet tonight?”  


It was decided that Seunghee would meet Jaehee outside her apartment building. Seunghee said that she was nervous about Jaehee walking around alone after dark. When Jaehee pointed out that it was probably equally dangerous for Seunghee, she insisted that wasn’t the case and Jaehee relented. Approximately half an hour after they hung up, Jaehee got Seunghee’s “I’m outside” text and went downstairs to greet her.  


They started walking without a destination in mind. Jaehee thought that Seunghee looked tense, though she was sure she looked just as uncomfortable.  


“I know that you wanted to meet so you could ask about me,” Seunghee said suddenly.  


Jaehee readjusted her glasses nervously. She had to admire Seunghee’s bluntness. She decided it would be best to be honest with Seunghee, so she replied, “Yes, I did.”  


Seunghee laughed humorlessly. “Okay, so ask.”  


“Will you actually tell me anything?”  


“Maybe,” Seunghee said.  


Well, maybe was better than a no. Jaehee watched Seunghee carefully as she asked, “Did you really not see anything in Rika’s apartment last night?”  


“No.” Was Seunghee avoiding her eyes, or was Jaehee imagining it?  


“No as in you really didn’t see anything, or no as in – “  


“I really didn’t see anything,” Seunghee said.  


This time, Jaehee did say it. “I don’t believe you.”  


“Okay, then don’t believe me,” Seunghee said with a nonchalant shrug.  


That answer was so infuriating Jaehee had to stop walking for a second and take a moment to calm down. She closed her eyes and, taking a deep breath, clenched and unclenched her fists a few times. She opened her eyes and turned to Seunghee, who had stopped beside her and was looking at her with her head tilted slightly to the side, her expression unreadable.  


“Don’t you have anything you want to tell me?” Jaehee asked. “About what happened in the apartment last night, or in the park – did you think I would forget about that?”  


“Of course I didn’t,” Seunghee said. “I was counting on it, if you really want to know.”  


“What?”  


“I wanted you to think about what I said.” Seunghee said this as if it should explain everything. “Last night, I wished you would have been more open to what I was saying, but I should have known better. I was too hasty. But you didn’t tell anyone else about what happened last night. That surprised me, I was sure you would. Why didn’t you?”  


The question pulled Jaehee up short. Yes, why hadn't she told anyone what happened last night? It was true that she had wanted to keep their meeting private, something clandestine that only the two of them would know about. It hadn’t gone the way Jaehee had hoped, though, and when they parted ways Jaehee was afraid that her earlier suspicions about Seunghee had just been proven right. So why didn’t she say anything to the RFA about what had happened? Was she simply too embarrassed by her own paranoid thoughts? Was she afraid they wouldn’t believe her?  


“Jaehee.” Seunghee’s tone was surprisingly warm and soft. “You’re really weird, you know that? No, actually, it’s not that you’re weird – it’s that you’re not what I expected. I knew you would be cautious of me when I got here, but I didn’t think you’d be this persistent.”  


“What – what are you talking about?” Jaehee stammered. “You make it sound like you knew about us – about me – but you said you didn’t! Did you? Seunghee?”  


Seunghee was still just staring at her, and it wasn’t clear whether she was actually hearing anything Jaehee was saying. She had begun twirling a lock of her hair around her finger as if in thought.  


“Have you decided to outright ignore my questions now? I suppose it’s more efficient than evading them.” Jaehee wrapped her arms around herself. It hadn’t been a particularly chilly evening, but suddenly Jaehee felt very cold.  


“Why are you here?” Seunghee asked suddenly. “Why did you come out here to meet me tonight, and last night? I know you want to know about me – but why? Is it just about protecting the RFA?”  


“I don’t know. It is partly that,” Jaehee said.  


“What’s the other part?” Seunghee asked. “Is it because you like me?”  


Jaehee laughed nervously, her heartbeat accelerating rapidly. She didn’t want to be having this conversation right now. Seunghee was very strange right now, more so than usual, and Jaehee was a bit scared of her.  


“I like you too, Jaehee,” Seunghee said. “A lot more than I thought I would.”  


Jaehee couldn’t help taking offense to that. “Did you think you wouldn’t like me?”  


“I didn’t know what to think of all of you,” Seunghee said. “But… I didn’t think about you very much at all, to be honest. They didn’t talk about you as much as the others. Maybe that’s why I like you so much, and why you always seemed a bit special to me. Because you weren’t special to them, at least not as much. I can think of you… separate from them.”  


Was this Seunghee’s backwards way of trying to compliment Jaehee? She liked Jaehee, but at the same time Jaehee didn’t matter? She wasn’t “special” to them? To them…  


“Who’s ‘them’?” Jaehee asked.  


“I really want to tell you, Jaehee,” Seunghee said. “I want to tell you everything, and you were supposed to find out eventually anyway. But now I’m afraid, because I like you so much, and – will you like me as much if you know what I am? I don’t even like what I am.”  


Jaehee’s mind was reeling, trying to keep up with what Seunghee was saying. It took her a moment to think of a response, but finally she said, in a surprisingly calm tone, “You might as well tell me what’s going on. It’s not like I’ll be able to trust you again if you decide not to. You’ve already given too much away, haven’t you?”  


Seunghee smiled, showing off those oddly pointed teeth of hers. “I guess you’re right.” She stepped closer to Jaehee and took hold of her hand. “Jaehee, can you promise that you’ll like me no matter what? Even if what I show you next scares you… will you still like me?”  


Jaehee shivered, only partially because of how cold Seunghee’s hands were. “That’s a lot to ask of me, don’t you think?”  


“Right again,” Seunghee said. “I’ll ask you something else, then. Can you trust me when I say I wouldn’t hurt you?”  


Jaehee didn’t say anything to that. Seunghee sighed but didn’t press her for an answer. She slowly brought Jaehee’s hand closer to her mouth. For a moment Jaehee thought Seunghee was going to kiss her hand, but all Seunghee did was lower Jaehee’s sleeve to her elbow. Their eyes met and Seunghee’s were apologetic, imploring even, and Jaehee suddenly regained enough clarity to realize what was about to happen. Seunghee’s mouth opened wide and she sank her teeth into Jaehee’s wrist.  


Jaehee screamed and tried to wrench herself out of Seunghee’s grasp, but she couldn’t, Seunghee was surprisingly strong. Way too strong. Seunghee was holding her arm in place tightly with both hands now, so Jaehee could barely move it. The pain wasn’t the worst part, not really. It was worst that Seunghee’s teeth puncturing her skin had seemed audible, it was worst to see her own blood running down her arm, staining Seunghee’s lips and teeth with red. Seunghee’s eyes had drifted closed and a soft hum sounded from her throat, but her grip didn’t seem to relax at all, so Jaehee could only stand there and watch.  


After a while Seunghee’s eyes shot open and her head lifted. She was panting heavily. Blood had dribbled over her mouth and down her chin. Her tongue darted out to lick her lips.  


She was looking into Jaehee’s eyes, but all Jaehee could focus on was the blood smeared around her lips. Seunghee loosened her grip on Jaehee slightly, enough for Jaehee to finally pull herself free and run. She thought she could hear Seunghee calling after her, saying her name perhaps, but she couldn’t make out any words.  


She ran faster than she could remember ever going, cradling her bitten arm to her chest. She didn’t know if Seunghee was following her. She couldn’t hear anything behind her. She couldn’t hear anything except her heart pounding, her own frantic footsteps, the harsh sobs that she only now realized were wracking her body, though she couldn’t remember when she had started crying.  


Her tears made everything a blur, but somehow she found herself back in her building, running up the stairs to her apartment, throwing open her front door, closing and locking it behind her with stiff and fumbling fingers. She made it a few steps inside before she sank to her knees. Her breath was coming out in pants between her sobs and her heart was still pounding so hard it was painful. She tried to regulate her breathing. Compose herself. Look at her arm.  


_Look at your arm._  


She blinked rapidly to try and get the tears out of her eyes. She grit her teeth and forced herself to hold her arm out in front of her. She whimpered at the sight and felt fresh tears sting her eyes. It was covered in red, and so was the front of her shirt. The holes left by Seunghee’s fangs – and she knew now that that was the right word – were still dripping blood. Warm and thick, it ran down from her wrist to her elbow.  


She breathed deeply to try and calm herself, and then got to her feet shakily. First things first, she would clean the blood off herself. Her shirt was probably ruined forever, she would have to throw it away. And after that… what was she supposed to do?  


She’d wanted to know more about Seunghee, and she’d gotten her answer. What had seemed to be the most unlikely theory about her had been proven right.


	5. Chapter 5

Jaehee called in sick for work the next day. She had never called in sick before. She also didn’t log in to the RFA chatroom, and she had ignored every call and text she had received. She couldn’t speak to anyone right now.

She sat at her kitchen table, staring down into the now cold remains of her sixth cup of coffee that day. It might have been her seventh cup, actually. Or maybe it was more than that. She had lost count a while ago. Her wrist was wrapped in a bandage, though the bleeding seemed to have stopped so it was probably fine. The bite didn’t seem to be as deep as she had first thought. She wasn’t sure if she should go to a hospital or not. She could have told the doctors that she had been bitten by an animal, and they would probably have believed that. But she was afraid to show anyone the bite marks, afraid of what the doctors might find if she let them take a look at it. 

She sighed and put her head in her hands. She hadn’t slept last night. Hadn’t even bothered trying, really. Instead she just kept going over what had happened in her mind. The glint of fangs in the moonlight. The cold hands around her own. The sharp pain as her skin was pierced. The blood flowing out, staining her arm, her clothes. Staining lips and teeth. Some part of her was still convinced that the whole ordeal had been a particularly vivid nightmare, but then she would look at the bandage on her wrist and she wouldn’t be able to deny it.

Seunghee was a vampire. Jaehee had possibly had feelings for a vampire, and then had been bitten by that same vampire.

She wondered if Seunghee would stick around now that Jaehee knew. Maybe she had already fled the apartment. Or maybe she didn’t care. No one else in the RFA knew. Should Jaehee tell them? Would any of them believe her if she did? She could make up some other story, something that would make it clear that Seunghee couldn’t be trusted without having to tell anyone the unbelievable truth. Though they would probably want to know how she knew, so she’d have to make up a story about that too. And they would likely want to investigate to be sure. 

Maybe Seunghee was somewhere agonizing over what to do now that Jaehee knew, too.

And what was going to happen to Jaehee now that she’d been bitten? Would she turn into a vampire too? Wasn’t that how it worked? But it had already been almost a full day since Seunghee had bitten her, and Jaehee didn’t seem to have changed yet. Maybe that meant she was safe, or it may just mean the process took a few days. She hadn’t eaten anything that day, she hadn’t had an appetite for anything, but she definitely didn’t have a craving for blood, so she could chalk her lack of appetite up to anxiety. She hadn’t grown fangs and… did vampires have heartbeats? She still had a heartbeat. She still had a reflection. She had been in sunlight without burning, though it hadn’t been direct sunlight since she hadn’t gone outside. Did that make a difference?

She sighed heavily again. Her hands were shaking, but that might have been due to all of the coffee. She was starting to long for the days when her biggest problem was getting the cat hair off of her clothes.

Her nerves were only getting worse the later it got. Seunghee knew where her apartment was, she might come to finish Jaehee off. Was there something Jaehee could do to keep her away? Garlic? Crosses? If vampires were real, exactly what parts of the myths were true?

Her phone rang. It could be Mr. Han calling again. He’d called her a few times that day already, though Jaehee hadn’t picked up any of his calls. She knew she would be in trouble for that later, but she didn’t have it in her to talk to him right now. She checked her phone’s screen and saw Seunghee’s name.

The phone dropped out of her hand and landed on the table with a loud clunk. No way was she taking Seunghee’s call. The phone rang a few more times and then fell silent, only to start ringing again a minute later. When Jaehee ignored that call as well, Seunghee started texting her, multiple times in a row and very rapidly. Jaehee had never known Seunghee to be a multitexter. She didn’t read any of them.

After a while the texts stopped. Maybe Seunghee had given up, though Jaehee thought that was unlikely. She would probably try again later. It might be for the best if Jaehee turned off her phone now. It might give her some peace of mind. Though there was still the possibility that Seunghee would come directly to Jaehee’s home. 

She was just about to check the locks on her door and windows when she heard a knock. 

Jaehee’s heart started to pound. It might not be Seunghee, she reasoned with herself. It could be Mr. Han coming to see why she ignored his calls.

The knocking on the door came again, louder this time. “Jaehee!” That was unmistakably Seunghee’s voice.

Jaehee stood up so quickly she knocked her chair over. She searched the cabinets in her kitchen for a clove of garlic and found one. Would it be enough? As an extra measure, she took the small decorative cross from her wall.

“Jaehee, I know you’re in there.” Seunghee paused. “I can smell you.”

_Smell me?_

“And I heard you knock something over.”

Jaehee didn’t say anything. She stood shaking and staring at the door, brandishing the garlic in one hand and the cross in the other. She wondered if Seunghee would be able to come in. Wasn’t there something in the old stories about vampires not being able to enter a house without being invited inside? She really wished she knew which stories were true.

“Jaehee, please let me explain.”

Jaehee finally found her voice. “There’s nothing for you to explain. Go away.”

“I won’t hurt you! I just want to talk to you, please –”

“You bit me!” Jaehee snapped. Saying the words made her shudder, but she tried to keep her voice steady. “You tried to kill me!”

“No! Can I please just come in and talk to you?” There was a soft thud, as though Seunghee had leaned herself against the door. When she spoke again, she sounded like she might cry. Could vampires cry? “I’m so sorry, Jaehee. I’m so sorry about that I didn’t tell you earlier, and that I bit you, and about everything. I’m sorry.”

Jaehee’s eyes stung with tears and she blinked rapidly in an effort to get rid of them. She always felt like crying when other people cried. She’d been told before that this was cute, but she just thought it was embarrassing. It felt especially ridiculous now. 

Her hands dropped to her sides. “What happens to me now?” Jaehee asked, uncomfortably aware of how much her voice was trembling. “Will I become….” She couldn’t say it, but she knew it wouldn’t be difficult for Seunghee to figure out what she wanted to say.

“You won’t turn,” Seunghee said softly. “It takes more than just a bite.”

Jaehee swallowed. If Seunghee could be believed about this, it was one less thing to worry about. 

“Can I come in, Jaehee?” There was a pause. “You can keep holding onto the garlic, I won’t come too close to you if you’re holding it.”

So garlic did work. Unless Seunghee was only saying that to lure her into false confidence. “How did you even know I –”

“I can smell it.”

Jaehee hesitated. She was still scared, and the more rational part of her was telling her not to trust anything Seunghee said. Why should she believe a blood-sucking monster? It would be foolish to let her into her apartment. She should tell Seunghee to leave. And yet, there was part of her that wanted to hear what she had to say. Part of her wanted to hear some justification for what had happened last night, because she still wanted to trust Seunghee. Before all of this had happened… she had liked Seunghee. She had become important to Jaehee in the short time they had known each other, and however much she wanted to pretend otherwise, she still clung to that. 

She steeled herself and stepped forward to unlock the door, then stepped back very quickly. The door swung open, and Seunghee came in, her eyes on Jaehee. It was surprising how normal Seunghee looked. Somehow Jaehee had expected her to look less human now that the truth was out, but she supposed that was silly.

“You have a cross too,” Seunghee said.

“Do they work?” Jaehee asked.

“Yes,” Seunghee said. She was eyeing the cross in Jaehee’s hand wearily.

“Which is more effective, garlic or crosses? Or are they the same?” Jaehee asked.

“Crosses. They can actually hurt me,” Seunghee said. She stretched her arm out toward Jaehee and then drew it back suddenly, as if she had touched a hot stove. “Garlic doesn’t hurt, it just repels me.”

“Why is that?”

“I don’t know. It smells terrible. I didn’t used to think so, but now it does.” Seunghee sighed. “I miss garlic bread.”

Seunghee sounded so wistful, and for a moment Jaehee forgot how serious the situation was and wanted to laugh, but she held it back. “So is it true that you can’t come in unless I invite you in?”

“No, I could have come in with or without your invitation if I’d wanted to,” Seunghee said.

“Oh.” That information was unsettling, but at least Jaehee knew what would repel vampires now. “So then, why didn’t you just come in before I let you?”

“I might be a monster but I still have manners, Jaehee.” Seunghee was looking her up and down critically. “You look like shit.”

“What happened to your manners?” Jaehee asked.

Seunghee ignored this. “Have you eaten anything today?” 

As if on cue, Jaehee’s stomach growled.

“That’s what I thought. Please eat something, Jaehee.”

“I’m not hungry,” Jaehee said, just as her stomach started growling again. “I just… didn’t have much of an appetite today.”

“You should eat now,” Seunghee said. “And did you get enough sleep last night?”

“I didn’t get any sleep last night.”

“How are you still awake?”

“Coffee and willpower.”

“Eat something now,” Seunghee said. She sounded so stern.

Jaehee rolled her eyes, but she had to admit that she was hungry now that her nerves had dissipated somewhat. She walked to her fridge and Seunghee hastily stepped out of her way, keeping her distance from the cross and the garlic. When Jaehee opened her fridge, there was a container full of takeout food – noodles and vegetables – from a few days ago. It still smelled okay… well, it smelled about as good as it had when she had gotten it. It would do.

She had to put the cross and the garlic down on the counter to eat, but she made sure to stand very close to them. Seunghee was still keeping her distance. Jaehee got a fork and made a show of taking a huge bite of her food.

“Don’t you want to warm that up?” Seunghee asked.

“It’s fine like this,” Jaehee said. “Besides, I don’t think you’re in any place to judge my eating habits.” Again, she wanted to laugh at the look Seunghee was giving her. She was actually having fun talking to Seunghee, but she had to remind herself what the situation was. While they were on the subject of eating, there was something she wanted to ask about, but she wasn’t sure how, or if she even should hear the answer. She didn’t need another sleepless night. “Seunghee… how often do you have to… drink….” Why was it so hard to say it?

“I do it almost every night,” Seunghee said quietly. “I can go for a while without it, a long time I think, but I’ve never really pushed it that far. It’s not a comfortable way to live.”

“Why not?”

“How comfortable would you be if you didn’t eat or drink for a week?”

“That’s a fair a point.” Jaehee’s appetite was quickly disappearing again, which may have been because of the food itself or because of the conversation, but she was afraid if she stopped eating Seunghee would stop talking, so she made herself take bites anyway. “So where do you, um, get blood from?”

“I have bags of it at Rika’s apartment,” Seunghee said. “I’ve never drunk blood directly from a human before. Except for you, I mean.”

Jaehee took a few more bites of food so she’d have an excuse not to answer that right away. What was she supposed to say to it anyway? When the silence became long enough to be awkward, she asked, “Where do you get the bags?”

Seunghee looked uncomfortable. “It’s… donated?”

“Does that mean you get it from hospitals?” Jaehee asked. “Is that even legal?”

“I don’t think human laws apply to me anymore.”

Jaehee couldn’t really argue with that. She pictured Seunghee sitting in Rika’s apartment, probably sitting on Rika’s couch, drinking stolen blood from out of a bag. Maybe she’d pour it in a glass before she drank it. That didn’t make the thought any more pleasant. Jaehee pushed it out of her mind.

“So then, you’ve never bitten anyone?” Jaehee asked. “Just me? How lucky I must be.”

Seunghee averted her eyes from Jaehee. “I’m sorry again. Really. I don’t know what I was thinking. I really didn’t want to scare you, I just didn’t know how else to get you to believe me.” 

The bandage on Jaehee’s wrist suddenly itched. “There had to be a better way than that.”

“I know. It will never happen again, I promise.” The corner of her mouth suddenly twisted into something that almost looked like a smile. “Want to hear something really funny? Before I was a vampire, I was a vegetarian.” She laughed bitterly.

Jaehee didn’t know how to react to that. Was it a joke? Was she supposed to laugh? Or should she say something sympathetic? It would probably be safer not to react at all. She did have a new question for Seunghee now, however.

“How long has it been since you’ve, um, stopped being a vegetarian?”

“Six months.”

Did she hear that right? “Did you say six months?”

“Yeah, that’s how long I’ve been a vampire,” Seunghee said.

“Oh.” Jaehee blinked a few times. She hadn’t been expecting Seunghee to be so… young. “Sorry, I guess I just thought… you know.”

“You thought I would be centuries old?” Seunghee asked. She looked amused.

“Well, yes,” Jaehee said. “Vampires are always so old in the stories, aren’t they?”

Seunghee laughed. “Right, but we don’t just start out that way! We have to be new vampires at some point, don’t we?”

Jaehee started to laugh with her. She still wanted to maintain some distance from Seunghee, both physical and emotional, but she couldn’t help herself. She so enjoyed talking with Seunghee, and it felt so good to laugh after all of the anxiety of the last twenty-four hours. The anxiety that Seunghee caused, she reminded herself. 

Both of them stopped laughing when Jaehee’s phone rang. Jaehee put the now empty food container on the counter and picked up her phone. “It’s Mr. Han again.”

“Again? How many times has he called you today?”

Jaehee tried to count in her head, but gave up almost immediately. “A lot. I haven’t taken any of his calls.”

“Can you really ignore his calls like that?” Seunghee asked, sounding concerned. 

“Probably not,” Jaehee said. She was starting to feel nervous about all the calls she had missed. She hoped she wouldn’t be in too much trouble. “Do you mind if I take this?”

“I think you should,” Seunghee said. 

Jaehee retreated to the bathroom, taking the garlic with her as a precaution, and answered her phone just before her voicemail picked up. “This is Jaehee Kang, Assistant Jumin Han’s director.” No, that wasn’t right.

“Why haven’t you answered any of my calls today?” Mr. Han’s voice snapped in her ear. They were skipping formalities, it seemed.

“I apologize, Mr. Han,” Jaehee said distractedly. She had just caught sight of her reflection in the mirror. She hadn’t taken a good look at herself all day. Seunghee had been right, she did look like shit. Her hair was sticking up in every direction, as if she hadn’t brushed it all day. Which she hadn’t. Her skin looked waxy and pale. There were dark circles under her eyes and a coffee stain on her shirt that she couldn’t even remember getting. She was also pretty sure her shirt was inside out. She put Mr. Han on speaker and tried to tidy herself up a bit as she spoke to him. “I wasn’t feeling well today. I did call to tell you that this morning.”

“Were you so sick that you couldn’t answer your phone?” Mr. Han asked.

“I was resting,” Jaehee lied. Her hair was looking slightly better now that it had been brushed, but she supposed there would be no way to fix her dark circles right now. “I apologize again for the inconvenience.”

“You’ve never called in sick before. I was worried.”

“You were?” Jaehee asked. This was surprising.

“Yes. I wanted to start the cat hotel project this week and I need your help. I was worried that if your health was too bad, you wouldn’t be able to.”

There it was. “Of course. I’m already feeling better, I’ll come back to work tomorrow, Mr. Han.”

“Are you sure you’re well enough? If you need to go to the hospital, I can take you.”

“No thank you, Mr. Han, I’m really fine,” Jaehee said. Except for the fact that there was a vampire in her apartment, anyway. 

She said goodbye to Mr. Han and hung up. She washed her face quickly before heading back out to the kitchen. Seunghee was still standing there, still looking deceptively normal. 

“Hey Jaehee,” Seunghee said, “Jumin doesn’t know about the vampire thing, does he?”

“No, I didn’t tell him. I didn’t tell anyone.”

Seunghee gave a relieved sigh. “Thank you for that.”

“Well, I didn’t do it for you,” Jaehee said. She thought it would be better to be honest, and she didn’t really want Seunghee to think she was protecting her. “I just didn’t think any of them would believe me if I’d told them.” 

“That’s fair. I’d really like this to stay a secret.”

“Yes, fine,” Jaehee said. When she had been talking to Mr. Han, it had suddenly struck her how exhausted she was. If she did plan on going to work tomorrow, she would need to rest. She still wanted to talk to Seunghee, but she didn’t think she could stay awake much longer. “Can we talk tomorrow? You have a lot more you need to explain to me, but –” She yawned deeply.

“You need to sleep.” Seunghee smiled. “Of course. I’ll come back tomorrow night. Get some rest, Jaehee.”

“You will actually come back tomorrow, won’t you? You won’t suddenly disappear on me?”

“I promise I’ll come back,” Seunghee said. “Why would you think I would disappear?”

“Honestly, I don’t understand why you would want to stay. I don’t understand why you’re here now, if you don’t –” she stopped herself before she could say _if you don’t plan on killing me_. She didn’t want to put any ideas in Seunghee’s head.

“I wanted to make sure you were okay, and to explain things,” Seunghee said softly. “Believe it or not, Jaehee, I wasn’t lying when I said I liked you.”

Jaehee didn’t say anything, partially because of the lump in her throat but mostly because she didn’t want to say aloud yet that she still liked Seunghee too. 

Seunghee left, and Jaehee suddenly felt lonelier than she ever had before. The whole thing was ridiculous. It was ridiculous that vampires were real, and that Seunghee was one, and that Jaehee had feelings for her. When had her life become a young adult novel?

She took the garlic with her to her bedroom, leaving it on her nightstand. She wondered if she would ever feel safe again without it.


	6. Chapter 6

_At least he forgave her. She didn’t know what she would have done if he hadn’t forgiven her._

_She felt sickened with herself for having bitten him, but he reassured her that he was okay, and still loved her. She had told him about sneaking out while he was asleep, about her encounter with the vampire, and the choice she made. It all seemed so stupid in hindsight, but again he told her not to worry._

_They were both okay. He still loved her._

_They stood on the balcony now, looking up at the moon and stars. He was still talking to her, all kind words and reassurances, but she wasn’t listening to him. She was still thirsty, the blood she had taken from him had not been enough, but at least the thirst had diminished enough that it was no longer painful. She wondered how long it would be before her throat started to burn again, before the gnawing feeling in her stomach returned, before she couldn’t stop herself from attacking V again._

_How long before he gave up on her? How long could he love a monster, really?_

_The sky was slowly lightening. Soon the sun would be rising again. Though she loved the moon and the night, she longed to see the sun and feel its warmth on her skin._

_The first rays appeared over the horizon, and as they shone on her they set her ablaze, and she screamed louder than she had ever screamed before. Her eyes squeezed shut and she hunched over to try to protect herself, but there was no way to shield herself from the sun. The pain was more excruciating than anything she had ever felt. Something wrapped around her waist, and she wanted to fight it off, but she was in too much pain, and whatever was touching her was only making it worse. She felt herself being moved, and then –_

_Suddenly it stopped. She realized that she hadn’t been on fire after all, but her skin was red and full of welts. V had dragged her inside when she started screaming, and closed the blinds so the sun wouldn’t touch her anymore. She was safe only in the darkness._

_He was asking her if she was okay, and she was nodding. The welts and the redness were slowly fading from her skin as she watched. She tried to wrap her arms around herself, but her skin still hurt too much. Why didn’t she think about how the sun would burn her? She hadn’t been thinking. She had only wanted to feel its light again, after such a long and terrible night. But of course that had been in all of the myths too. Vampires burned in the sun. Apparently that one was true._

_She suddenly felt so tired, she could barely stand. She told V she wanted to sleep, and she didn’t hear his response. Her eyes were already closing, and she would have fallen if he hadn’t caught her._

_The sun was the mother of all, shining its everlasting light and love on the world. But not on Rika, never again._

*

It actually felt good to go to work the next day. When Jaehee came in, Mr. Han still seemed concerned and even asked her again if she was sure she felt well enough to work. He had also noticed her still-bandaged wrist that her sleeve could not quite hide and asked her about it, but she managed to pass that off as a kitchen accident. Once she assured him that she was okay and healthy, he didn’t hesitate to shower her with tasks for the upcoming cat hotel project. For once she didn’t mind, though. Getting a night of sleep had done Jaehee a lot of good, and it was nice to have something to focus on. Even if the work wasn’t particularly interesting, it kept her distracted from thinking of Seunghee.

It was already quite dark when Jaehee got home later that evening, and she still had a lot of work to do, but she would have to make time for it tomorrow. She wanted to organize her thoughts and make a list of questions she had for Seunghee, so she would be ready when she saw her tonight. It took her about an hour to get everything down. It was a long list, they probably wouldn’t even have time to get through all of it, not if Jaehee had any plans to sleep tonight, anyway. 

She was double-checking her list when her phone buzzed. It was a text from Seunghee.

**Jaehee, I might be late tonight.**

Jaehee stared at the text for a minute. They hadn’t exactly set a time for Seunghee to meet with her, so technically Seunghee couldn’t really be late. For some reason, the text made her feel uneasy.

**How late, exactly?**

Seunghee's answer came quickly.

**I don’t know. Tonight might not be a good night for this.**

Was she serious? There was no way Jaehee was going to let her get away with that. She dialed Seunghee’s number. Seunghee picked up almost immediately.

“Hello, Jaehee,” she sighed resignedly.

“What do you mean tonight isn’t a good night?” Jaehee snapped. 

“I… something came up,” Seunghee said. 

“No,” Jaehee said. “You’re supposed to explain everything to me tonight. I’m not letting you back out!”

“I’m not trying to back out!” Seunghee said. “I just said tonight might not be a good night!”

“I would go over to Rika’s apartment right now if I knew where it was,” Jaehee said. She was tempted to call Seven and demand he give her the address, but she knew he wouldn’t. “What came up? What do you have to do tonight that’s so urgent?”

“I can’t –”

“You can’t tell me. Of course. Got it.” Jaehee ran her hand through her hair. “Can’t you come over when you’re done?”

“I don’t know what time that will be,” Seunghee said.

“I don’t care what time it is, come over when you’re done,” Jaehee said firmly.

“What if you’re asleep?” Seunghee asked.

“Then wake me up!” Jaehee hung up on her. She probably should have waited for confirmation of some kind from Seunghee, but it did feel like an impressive power move. Though she supposed that wouldn’t work on a vampire.

Jaehee looked through the list of questions she had made. She had been so excited just a moment ago, but now she just felt drained and apprehensive. She might not even get to ask any of her questions tonight, let alone get through the whole list. 

What was Seunghee doing right now? What kind of errands did vampires have to run? What could have come up in the time since Jaehee had last seen her, and why would it take Seunghee so long?

Jaehee had the feeling that Seunghee was meeting with someone else. It could even be another vampire. It could even have something to do with whoever had disabled the cameras at Rika’s apartment the other night. Jaehee still didn’t believe that Seunghee hadn’t seen anyone. At least now she understood why Seunghee had been so unconcerned about the whole thing. What could threaten a vampire? Except perhaps another vampire.

And… that night that Jaehee was bitten, Seunghee had said something strange, hadn’t she? The bite had pushed all of it out of Jaehee’s mind, but it was coming back to her now. Someone had told Seunghee about the RFA… that was what she had said, wasn’t it? Whoever Seunghee was referring to, that must have something to do with what she was doing tonight. Jaehee would have to get Seunghee to answer her about this if she saw her – no, when she saw her. She knew it wouldn’t be easy, but she had to know. She would threaten Seunghee with garlic and crosses if she had to. 

Well… maybe not. It didn’t seem very ethical. Did ethics really matter where literal monsters were concerned? God, this was confusing.

Of course, this wasn’t just any monster. This was Seunghee, her… friend? She didn’t even know what she was supposed to call Seunghee. At any rate, she wasn’t a stranger, and though Jaehee hadn’t entirely ruled out the possibility that Seunghee was an enemy, she also hadn’t rid herself of her pesky feelings for Seunghee.

She sighed and moved her list aside. If she was going to have to stay up waiting for Seunghee, she might as well get started on the work she had. Mr. Han would advise her to ignore her emotions so she could focus, and right now that was all she could do.

*

She must have fallen asleep, because she was suddenly woken with a start. The last document she had been reading was stuck to her face. She seemed to have drooled on it a bit. She peeled it off and hoped that it wouldn’t show in the morning. What time was it? What had woken her up?

There was a loud banging on her front door. Oh, that was it.

“Jaehee, it’s me!” came Seunghee’s voice.

“Coming!” Jaehee shouted louder than was strictly necessary. She stood up quickly and made sure that the garlic she had placed on her kitchen table earlier was still there. She wanted to keep it nearby as a precaution, but she thought it might be okay to go without the cross. She didn’t really want to hurt Seunghee, and it might make Seunghee feel more comfortable, which in turn might make her more willing to share.

She ran her fingers through her hair and straightened out her clothes as she walked to the door. When she opened it Seunghee’s expression looked pinched and uneasy, but her smile was still warm. 

“Did I wake you?” Seunghee asked.

“Yes, but that’s fine,” Jaehee said, gesturing for Seunghee to come inside.

“I’m sorry I took so long,” Seunghee said. “We don’t have a lot of time, but I didn’t want you to think I wouldn’t keep my promise.”

“What do you mean we don’t have a lot of time?” Jaehee asked.

Seunghee blinked. “It’s really late, Jaehee – late enough that it’s what most would consider morning. The sun will be up in like an hour.”

Jaehee’s head snapped to the clock hanging on her wall. She hadn’t thought to check what time it was when she had woken up. “Oh. Right. So, what happens to you in the sunlight?”

“I burn and die,” Seunghee said, her voice deadpan.

“Oh,” Jaehee said. She wanted to say something sympathetic, but she didn’t know what.

“Whatever, I never liked sunny weather anyway,” Seunghee said.

Jaehee couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. “What do you do during the day then?”

“I sleep,” Seunghee said.

“Vampires need sleep?”

Seunghee shrugged. “I guess, seeing as we all do it. We get so tired during the day, we just kind of pass out, but we’re awake as soon as the sun goes down.” Seunghee was eyeing Jaehee, her head tilted to the side slightly in a way that made Jaehee feel like she was something entertaining being observed. “But I’m guessing this isn’t what you wanted to ask me about, is it?”

“No, it wasn’t,” Jaehee said. “I mean, it was technically, but it was kind of low on my list.”

“You have a list?” Seunghee asked. She sounded amused.

“Kind of,” Jaehee said, suddenly feeling embarrassed about it. It did seem silly now that Seunghee was here. “It didn’t take me that long to make. It was just something I threw together quickly, really.”

Seunghee was picking up a piece of paper that had fallen to the floor. “Is this it?” She looked over the paper quickly. “Yes, it is. This is… really thorough.”

Jaehee wasn’t aware of doing it, but she had stepped forward and snatched the list out of Seunghee’s hands. Seunghee’s eyes, wide with surprise, were looking right into hers, their faces inches apart. Jaehee hadn’t stood this close to Seunghee since the night she had been bitten. She backed away quickly, her face hot.

“Forget the list,” Jaehee said, staring at her feet.

There was silence for what felt like a long time, but Seunghee broke it. “I wish I could stay, Jaehee. But –”

“I know, you have to get back to Rika’s apartment before sunrise,” Jaehee said. She finally looked up again.

“I’ll come back tomorrow and we’ll talk for real,” Seunghee said.

“No,” Jaehee said, taking both of them by surprise. “What I mean is, you should stay here. You might not make it back to Rika’s apartment in time, and we’d have more time to talk tomorrow, and I’d be able to keep an eye on you.” She could feel herself staring to babble and cut herself off. She watched Seunghee, waiting for her to answer. She didn’t know what answer she wanted to hear. She couldn’t believe what she had just offered Seunghee, it couldn’t be a good idea. Yet the thought of Seunghee saying no was upsetting. What was wrong with her?

“We would probably have to tell the RFA if I stayed here,” Seunghee said slowly.

Jaehee swallowed. She hadn’t said no, yet. “I can tell them.”

“Am I even allowed to stay?”

“You’re the one who said we don’t need anyone’s permission in the first place,” Jaehee pointed out. She added, “You don’t have to say yes.”

“I’ll stay,” Seunghee said, and Jaehee’s heartbeat sped up significantly. Whether this was because she was happy or because she was terrified she wasn’t sure. It might have been both. Seunghee went on, “Are you sure you want me to?”

“I offered, didn’t I?” It came out more defensive than Jaehee had intended.

“You did, and that’s surprising,” Seunghee said. “But if you are sure, I’ll stay.” She smiled, and Jaehee got a glimpse of her fangs again. She hadn’t really had a good look at them since the other night, or maybe she had simply been trying not to look at them. They did make Seunghee’s smile rather intriguing, in a creepy way.

“Okay. Good.” Jaehee hoped she sounded more confident than she felt. “So if you don’t have to leave, we have longer to talk, don’t we?”

“Yeah, you can ask me some of the stuff on your list,” Seunghee said.

“Shut up,” Jaehee said, and Seunghee laughed. Jaehee didn’t need to look at the list to know what she wanted to ask first. “Why did you show up so late tonight? What were you doing?”

“I was meeting with someone,” Seunghee said.

“Right. Who?”

“No one you need to know about,” Seunghee said. When Jaehee opened her mouth to speak again, Seunghee hastily continued, “He’s just… this other vampire I know. Really, you don’t have to worry about him.”

Jaehee thought that vampires would always be something to worry about, but all she said was, “So what did he want that was so important?”

“He was just checking in,” Seunghee said, playing with her hair and avoiding Jaehee’s eyes, or so it seemed.

“About what?”

Seunghee rolled her eyes. “I don’t know. He’s a friend I haven’t seen in a while. He wanted to know how I was.”

It was strange to think of vampires being friends with each other, meeting up for casual chats and checking to see how the other was doing. “Was he the one who told you about the RFA?”

Jaehee saw Seunghee stiffen and her eyes widen. She kept her gaze averted when she answered, her voice feigning casualness. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Was Seunghee really going to pretend that she didn’t know what Jaehee was referring to? “The night you bit me, you said something about… someone told you about me. About the RFA. I can’t remember it exactly, but you said something like that!” 

“If you can’t remember, are you sure it happened?” Seunghee asked. She finally looked Jaehee in the eye again. “I really don’t know what you mean, Jaehee.”

No… Seunghee was lying. Wasn’t she? Jaehee wished she could remember what Seunghee had said. That whole night was a blur except for the bite. “I know you said you knew about us, Seunghee! You said – you said all of this weird stuff –”

“Jaehee,” Seunghee said gently. “You were really frightened that night. I think you’re remembering wrong because you’re paranoid. It’s okay.”

Was she? No… it didn’t sound right. But maybe it was. “I – I don’t –” Jaehee wasn’t sure what she was trying to say. She looked at the list in her hands, as if it might help her figure this out. Her hands were shaking a bit as she lowered the list. “Your vampire friend. Is he dangerous?”

“I told you, you don’t have to worry about him,” Seunghee said.

“That’s not exactly an answer.”

“He’s no more dangerous than I am,” Seunghee said. “And I would never hurt you, Jaehee.”

It still didn’t feel like an answer to Jaehee’s question. Jaehee reconsidered her decision to let Seunghee stay here, but she knew she couldn’t risk sending Seunghee away when it was so close to dawn. Besides, Jaehee would be at work soon, and Seunghee would be here, sleeping and unable to go outside even if she was awake. Surely nothing could happen.

“I’ll only ask you one more thing tonight,” Jaehee said. “Why did you join the RFA? Weren’t you ever afraid we would find out you’re a vampire? I don’t understand what you would get out of it, except perhaps five potential meals.” Oh, maybe saying that last part had been a bad idea. Seunghee actually looked a bit offended.

“Will you ever stop thinking I want to eat you?” Seunghee asked.

“I… just answer me.”

“You all invited me to join,” Seunghee pointed out.

“Yes, and I did think they invited you too soon,” Jaehee admitted. “I also thought you accepted too quickly.”

“The RFA needed my help, and I wanted to give it.” Seunghee sighed. “I think sometimes… sometimes I just want to feel like I’m not what I am. Like I don’t have to be a monster, really.”

As with most things Seunghee said, Jaehee wasn’t sure how to react. It sounded like Seunghee was being truthful about this, and her face had taken on a pensive look.

“I guess… that makes sense,” Jaehee got out. Seunghee didn’t say anything in response. Jaehee added, “So, you really don’t want to eat me, then?” It was supposed to be a joke, but it felt like a bad idea as soon as she said it. She had only wanted to break the tension a bit, but she was quickly learning that Seunghee could be very sensitive, and Jaehee was still so unsure of how to navigate things with her.

To her surprise and relief, Seunghee grinned. “Not in the way you think.”

“What?” Was Jaehee supposed to be afraid or not?

“Never mind,” Seunghee said quickly. “Where should I… sleep? The sun will be up soon.”

Jaehee thought about it for a minute. Her apartment only had one bedroom, and there wasn’t really much place for any guests. Since she wouldn’t be home for most of the day anyway, she supposed it wouldn’t matter where Seunghee slept. So she felt silly when she blushed as she said, “You can use my bed. I won’t be here anyway.”

If Seunghee was fazed by this, she didn’t say anything, but maybe that was because she didn’t seem to have the energy for it right now. Her eyelids kept drooping shut and when Jaehee told her to follow her to her room, she dragged her feet. Vampires at sunrise were like sleepy toddlers, apparently.

“Hey Jaehee,” Seunghee said, her voice cracked and groggy from exhaustion. “You can say ‘vampire’ now.” She sat down hard on Jaehee’s bed.

“What do you mean?” Jaehee asked.

“Last night, you couldn’t say it. You kept avoiding it. But you say it now.”

“Oh. I guess I do,” Jaehee said. She walked over to her window and drew her blinds shut. Before they closed, she could just see the sun coming up over the horizon. Apparently, she and Seunghee were cutting it very close. 

She suddenly understood something, and her face got very hot. “Oh! Seunghee, I just got what you said before. About, um… about eating. Seunghee?” 

She turned around and found Seunghee lying on her bed, her eyes closed, her expression relaxed and peaceful, her arms folded on her chest like she was in a coffin. Jaehee wondered if that was actually necessary or if she was only doing it for the aesthetic.

“Seunghee?” Jaehee asked again. She approached the bed carefully and reached out to touch Seunghee’s arm. Seunghee didn’t move. Jaehee tried shaking her, but Seunghee wouldn’t react no matter what she did. She really was out, just like that. It was eerie, being so physically close to Seunghee while she was so beyond Jaehee’s reach mentally. Jaehee had offered to let Seunghee stay here, she had offered Seunghee her bed, but she hadn’t totally been prepared for how uneasy she would feel at seeing her lying so still on it, looking so vulnerable and so unnatural.

She left the room quickly and closed the door behind her. She felt like a coward for not wanting to be in the room for too long, but it wasn’t like there was any reason for her to stay in there. 

It was still very early, too early for her to leave for work. She could try to get a bit more sleep before work, since she had only gotten a few hours before Seunghee showed up, but she didn’t feel tired enough now. She knew that she would be later, and she would regret not using this time for sleep when she could. 

The garlic was still on her kitchen table. She’d forgotten about it when she’d brought Seunghee into her bedroom. This worried her, she didn’t want to get too comfortable around Seunghee. Of course, Seunghee was currently asleep in her bed, so maybe that ship had sailed. 

She looked at the bandage on her wrist. She didn’t need it anymore, really. The bite hadn’t bled since the first night. She had only been keeping it on because… she didn’t know why exactly. She removed the bandage and could barely see the bite marks anymore. It wasn’t likely that anyone else would see them unless they knew to look for them.

She logged into the RFA chatroom quickly. No one was online, but she left a few quick messages explaining that Seunghee was at her place. She didn’t know how they would all react to that news, she hadn’t gone into any details, but she did expect a lot of questions later. 

*

“Assistant Kang.”

“Yes, Mr. Han?” 

“Did you get in touch with the owner of the cat hotel chain?”

“I’ve tried calling him, but I could only get through to his assistant. Apparently he’s too busy to take any of my calls,” Jaehee said. She stifled a yawn. Now she was regretting not taking advantage of the time she had to sleep. “I’ll keep trying.”

“How long will you be at the office?” Mr. Han asked.

That was a good question. Technically work hours were over, but Jaehee hardly ever worked regular work hours. She did still have a few thing to take care of at the office, so she might be here a while longer. Before she could give Mr. Han her answer, however, he asked her:

“Is Seunghee still at your place?”

Jaehee was thrown off by the question. So he had read the messages, then. She hadn’t had time to log in to the messenger since that morning. Well, that wasn’t true. She had had time, she had just been avoiding it. “Yes, she is.”

“I see.” Mr. Han’s expression was unreadable. “You should go, Assistant Kang.”

“I should? But – but I thought you wanted me to call the owner of the cat hotel,” Jaehee said.

“You can do that from home, can’t you?” Mr. Han pointed out.

“I – yes, that’s true,” Jaehee said. “I did have a few other things to do here.” Why was she arguing?

“You can take care of it tomorrow,” Mr. Han said. “You shouldn’t leave Seunghee waiting.”

“Oh. Yes, you’re right.” Jaehee wasn’t sure how to tell him that her absence wouldn’t make a difference to Seunghee, not until nightfall when she woke up. Of course, she couldn’t tell him anyway. The whole vampire thing was supposed to be a secret. She wondered how long they would be able to keep it that way. 

“Go home, Assistant Kang,” Mr. Han said. “And tell Seunghee hello from me.”

“Okay, I will. Thank you, Mr. Han,” Jaehee said. She stood and started gathering the materials she wanted to take home. Mr. Han was still watching her, which made her feel self-conscious. She kept dropping things because her hands were stiff and shaking.

“So, how often do you see Seunghee?” he asked her suddenly.

Jaehee couldn’t meet his eye, and she was sure her face was bright red. “Not that often. This isn’t a regular thing.”

“Luciel mentioned that Seunghee left Rika’s apartment the other night,” Mr. Han said. “How many other times has that happened?”

Jaehee knew where he was headed with this. “It’s really not that often. I suppose it’s starting to look that way but… it wasn’t that often,” she finished weakly. 

“Well, I’d be glad if you two were seeing more of each other,” Mr. Han said.

Jaehee looked up at him in surprise. “You would be?”

“Yes. Ever since Seunghee joined the RFA and you two started becoming closer, you’ve been much happier at work,” Mr. Han said. “You’re more productive when you’re happy.”  


Jaehee didn’t know what to say. Did she really seem like she was happier these days? So much so that even Mr. Han could notice it? _Was_ she happier? Lately it seemed like every moment was filled with confusion and stress and fear, over what Seunghee’s intentions were, whether she could be trusted, whether she might just drain Jaehee of blood one night when she least expected it. As for her being more productive, she decided not to point out that it was after Seunghee joined the RFA that Jaehee took her first sick day in two years, but she supposed it was true that she was working more efficiently lately. But that was only because burying herself in her work was easier than thinking about how she felt about Seunghee.

How she felt about Seunghee… could any of it be described as “happy”? She thought about the conversations she’d had with Seunghee in the chatroom and on the phone, before she’d had any idea of what Seunghee was. She had been happy talking to Seunghee then, she supposed. It was what she looked forward to every day, Seunghee’s kind words and sense of humor, and the fact that she knew Seunghee looked forward to speaking to her too. She did enjoy talking and spending time with Seunghee, she couldn’t deny that, and perhaps in some ways it had affected her for the better, but it was also more complicated than that. 

“Assistant Kang.” Mr. Han’s voice snapped her back to the present. “I apologize if I overstepped. I only meant that you and Seunghee seem good together. I hope you are happy.”

“It’s okay, Mr. Han. It’s just…,” she didn’t know how to finish that sentence. Of course she couldn’t tell him what she was thinking about. “I don’t know if Seunghee and I are really _together_. It’s a bit complicated,” she got out. It wasn’t a lie, and it seemed like a good cover for her strange behavior, but it was something that she didn’t think she should be discussing with her boss. Then again, they were also both members of the RFA, so maybe it was okay to discuss it with him a bit. She was never entirely sure where they were supposed to draw the line, or if they even had one. 

“Your relationship status is none of my concern anyway,” Mr. Han said bluntly, which Jaehee appreciated right now. “But if both of you can help each other with your work, I’m supportive. How is Seunghee doing with the party preparations?”

“The what?” Jaehee blurted. Mr. Han stared at her with his stern gaze and suddenly it hit her. The party! How had she forgotten about it? “Oh! Yes, of course. The party. I – I think it’s coming along well,” she said hastily. 

Mr. Han’s expression was difficult to read, but all he said was, “Go home, Assistant Kang.”

She nodded and finished gathering her things quickly. She bid him a quick goodbye and left, but she was suddenly feeling incredibly lonely. She was tired of secrets, tired of excuses and half-truths. Seunghee couldn’t expect her to keep the fact that she was a vampire hidden from the RFA forever, and Jaehee was starting to wish the secret would come out sooner rather than later.


	7. Chapter 7

When Jaehee got home, the first thing she did was check on Seunghee. She wasn’t sure why she did. Seunghee was lying exactly as Jaehee had last seen her, and of course she wouldn’t have moved. Once again she left the room quickly after checking on her, still finding the sight disturbing for some reason. Even when she was unreachable, Seunghee’s presence hung over Jaehee, making it difficult to think of anything else, but there was still some time before sundown. 

The only thing Jaehee could do was wait. She tried to go about her business, making herself dinner, showering, she even took a short nap, setting an alarm to ensure that she didn’t sleep too long. She did have to take care of her work, and she wanted to have as much of it as possible done before Seunghee woke up. It was a good thing she was so used to running on very little sleep, as sad as that thought was. Whatever she did, however, it didn’t seem to fill up enough time, nor did it distract her from her thoughts. Was she finishing her tasks that quickly? It was a rare occurrence that “too much time” was a problem for her. 

When the sun finally started to set, Jaehee all but ran to her bedroom. In her excitement she nearly tripped over her coffee table, but it barely slowed her down. She wasn’t sure whether she should be there when Seunghee woke up or not. Would it make her more comfortable to see Jaehee when she woke up? What was a vampire who had just woken up even like? Would she be grumpy? Would she be dangerous? Jaehee didn’t know, but she entered her bedroom and approached Seunghee carefully. She didn’t want to be too close, just in case. Maybe she should go back and get some garlic.

The curtains were closed, so Jaehee couldn’t watch the sun going down. She was afraid to open the curtains at all, though, as she was afraid any sunlight would be harmful to Seunghee. What little light there was in the room was slowly dwindling, and Seunghee’s eyes opened very suddenly. She caught sight of Jaehee and hissed – actually _hissed_ at her.  


Jaehee scurried back from the bed so fast she almost fell over. Seunghee was sitting up now and looking very worried.

“Jaehee! I’m so sorry,” she said. “I – I’m not used to humans being around when I wake up.”

“That’s all right,” Jaehee said, trying to sound less frightened than she was. “Um, good… evening, I guess.” She didn’t know what else to say.

Seunghee stood up and they walked out into the living room in silence. Jaehee took a seat on the sofa and waited for Seunghee to do the same, but she remained standing. Jaehee wasn’t sure what the protocol for dealing with a just-woken vampire was. Should she be offering Seunghee something? It wasn't like she could have food or drinks. Or maybe she could. Oh, this was so weird. Even Seunghee seemed as though she wasn’t sure how to proceed.

“How was your day?” Seunghee finally broke the silence. She sounded like she was trying way too hard to be casual.

“Fine. Mr. Han says hello, by the way,” Jaehee said. Now seemed as good a time as ever to bring up the thing that had been on her mind after she’d left work. “Seunghee… when will you tell the others?”

Seunghee looked alarmed at this. “I don’t know. Soon, I guess.”

“You didn’t think you would keep it hidden from them forever, did you?” Jaehee asked.

“No, of course not,” Seunghee said. “I’ll them soon, really. But for now, you have to keep it a secret, okay? Please, Jaehee.”

Jaehee nodded. She didn’t trust what Seunghee meant by “soon”, and she was tired of secrets. Talking with Mr. Han earlier had forced her to think about her relationship with Seunghee in a way that she had been avoiding, and she suspected Seunghee had been trying to avoid too. Seunghee had already admitted that she liked Jaehee, and though Jaehee had never said the words out loud she knew that Seunghee knew she felt the same way. Apparently it was so obvious that even Mr. Han had picked up on something, if that was indeed what he’d meant when he said he thought she and Seunghee were together. Were they ever going to talk about it? Shouldn’t they?

She wanted to bring it up now, but the lump in her throat was making it difficult to get the words out. “I just wonder sometimes….” She had to stop. Her voice sounded way too thick.

“Jaehee?” Seunghee was looking at her with such concern, it really wasn’t helping Jaehee get her emotions under control.

“I – I wonder what our future is.” Her voice cracked at the end of her sentence, but at least she was getting the words out. “I don’t like feeling so uncertain. I never know what I’m doing with you. There’s still so much I don’t understand. Sometimes I’m still afraid you might attack me, but somehow I still want to be around you. I really don’t know, I don’t know what to do about my feelings for you –” She cut herself off abruptly. She hadn’t meant to say that last part. The words had just tumbled out of her before she’d thought them through.

“Jaehee,” Seunghee whispered. She sat down next to Jaehee and touched her arm. Jaehee shivered but didn’t move it away. “I know this is weird. It’s hard for me too. I’m sorry, I –”

“Don’t apologize,” Jaehee said, her voice still hoarse. “I don’t know why I said that. It was stupid.”

“It wasn’t,” Seunghee said firmly, and she leaned forward and pressed her lips to Jaehee’s.

It was funny how even with the coldness of Seunghee’s lips and of her hand on Jaehee’s arm, it could still feel like warmth was spreading through Jaehee’s body. It was radiating from her, from the two of them, wrapping around them and whispering words of comfort into Jaehee’s ear. And she so wished to believe them.

She didn’t want to, but Jaehee was the one to break the kiss. “That’s not helping me feel less confused.”

“It’s not helping me either,” Seunghee said. “But I don’t think anything will. I don’t want to overthink it, I just want to focus on how we feel right now. Can't we do that?”

“That’s a nice idea, but I don’t know if that’s possible for me,” Jaehee said. “I’m always going to overthink everything with you.”

Seunghee was about to move away, but Jaehee pulled her in closer and kissed her again. She should have let Seunghee pull away, she knew, but… oh, this felt good. She wished she didn’t have to think of everything that could go wrong, she wished she didn’t have to be so afraid. She wished that kissing Seunghee could feel normal, and not like she was walking into the eye of the storm.

“OW!” Jaehee broke the kiss again, but this time it was because of a sharp pain in her bottom lip. Seunghee had bitten it and – Jaehee touched her lip and looked at her finger. Yes, she was bleeding.

“Sorry! I didn’t think I was biting that hard,” Seunghee said.

“It’s okay,” Jaehee giggled. She couldn’t help herself. She took a tissue from the box on the coffee table and held it to her lip.

“Humans are so fragile,” Seunghee pondered.

“It hasn’t been that long since you’ve been a human,” Jaehee said.

“It already feels like a long time ago.”

“Does it ever scare you? That you’re immortal, I mean.”

Seunghee shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t think the immortality thing has totally hit me yet. I think like fifty years from now I’ll realize that I haven’t aged a day since I was twenty-three, and the crushing weight of my immortality will suddenly fall on me then.”

Jaehee laughed uncomfortably. She was pretty sure Seunghee meant for that to be funny, but it was a chilling thought. Seunghee would never age, she would never change. Jaehee could be old and wrinkled and on her death bed and Seunghee would look exactly as she did now. It was another reason that a relationship with Seunghee was a bad idea, wasn’t it? Unless… unless…

_No_. Jaehee put a stop to that train of thought just as it was forming. No way was she considering that route. 

Seunghee was staring at Jaehee’s lips, but Jaehee wasn’t sure if that was because she wanted to kiss again or if it was because of the blood. Jaehee decided to try to keep Seunghee talking as a distraction.

“How do you become a vampire?” Jaehee asked. “You said it takes more than just a bite.”

“Yeah, you do have to be bitten,” Seunghee said, “but then you would also need to drink the blood of the vampire who bit you.”

Well, Jaehee had asked and she’d gotten an answer. Ignoring her feeling of nausea, she continued, “How did it happen to you?”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Seunghee said resolutely.

Jaehee supposed it had been a personal question. “Right, sorry.” She racked her brain for something else to talk about, and again found herself thinking about her conversation with Mr. Han. “How are the party preparations going?”

Seunghee raised an eyebrow at her. “That’s what you want to know about?” She smiled.

“No, I haven’t thought about the party in days,” Jaehee said. Truthfully, she wasn’t sure she still cared about the party. It was far from a priority for her now. She supposed she now agreed with what Seunghee had said in the park, the party didn’t feel so important anymore. “I only ask because Mr. Han asked. I had forgotten about it until he brought it up.”

“The party preparations are going fine,” Seunghee said. “You’ll all have a good time, I’m sure. Even if I can’t be there.”

Seunghee kept looking at her lips and away again, her eyes shining the same way they had shone the night Jaehee had been bitten. Jaehee slowly lowered the now-bloody tissue from her lip and Seunghee’s eyes followed it.

“Seunghee, are you… hungry?” Jaehee asked.

“I’m fine,” Seunghee said. She sounded very uncomfortable. “I told you I can go without blood for a while.”

“Yes, but I didn’t ask you that,” Jaehee said. “I asked you if you were hungry.”

“I – I’m… it’s just… you’re bleeding,” Seunghee said, gesturing at Jaehee’s lip awkwardly. “It’s hard not to… think about it.”

The air in the room suddenly felt a lot colder. “You mean, it’s hard not to attack me?” Her tone sounded more accusatory than she had meant for it to.

“I would never attack you!” Seunghee said. “I’m just… not used to being around blood.

“Yes of course, as a vampire you must never come across blood,” Jaehee said dryly.

“You know what I mean.”

“I do.” Maybe Jaehee was being a bit harsh. Seunghee hadn’t really done anything, but Jaehee felt uncomfortable being so close to her. What had seemed funny before was suddenly scary. That was exactly the problem. Could she ever really feel safe with Seunghee? It seemed like every time she thought she did, reality would come crashing down on her, reminding her that Seunghee was a predator and Jaehee was her prey. Even if they cared about each other… even if Seunghee believed that she would never hurt Jaehee, could they trust her to keep her instincts in control? Just how powerful were those instincts anyway?

Just a few minutes ago she would have hated for Seunghee to leave, but suddenly Jaehee wanted nothing more than to be alone. She was tired, and confused, and completely emotionally drained. Lately her emotions had been going through storms, and she just wanted a moment of calm, if that were still possible.

“I have a lot of work to do, Seunghee. I should focus on that,” Jaehee said coldly.

“Okay, Jaehee,” Seunghee said, her voice very soft.

Jaehee didn’t watch her leave, but she heard the front door close and looked up to find her gone. Okay. That was what she had wanted. She wanted to finish her work and go to bed, she wanted to put what had happened tonight out of her mind.

It was hard to forget the feeling of Seunghee’s lips on hers, and how happy and warm she had felt in the moment. It was also hard to forget the fangs piercing her lip and making her bleed, and the aftermath of it.

*

She had been sleeping uneasily, Seunghee weaving in and out of her dreams, and she woke very suddenly to a loud bang.

Her heart was racing and adrenaline was coursing through her, but she was still too disoriented to do anything but lie there. She tried to place herself in her surroundings and shake off the sleep that clung to her. It was the middle of the night, she was alone, and she’d just been woken by a crash like… like someone had burst through her front door.

She sat up, wide awake now. Who was it? A burglar? A vampire? It couldn’t be Seunghee, could it?

She should call the police, right now. Although if it was a vampire, it wasn’t likely the police would be able to do anything about it.  
She did have a blackbelt in Judo and was quite adept at defending herself, but that was only helpful if it was a human intruder. She didn’t think she’d be able to stop a vampire attack with a shoulder throw.

“Jaehee? It’s me!”

That sounded like Seunghee. What was she doing here? It didn’t feel right that Seunghee would come to visit her so late after Jaehee had made it clear that she wanted to be alone. She had been clear, hadn’t she? Even if she wasn’t, why would Seunghee let herself in?

“Jaehee?”

Every coherent thought she was having was telling her to stay in her room, to ignore Seunghee’s voice. Yet she found herself getting out of bed, arming herself with the garlic that she had left on her nightstand again, moving carefully to her bedroom door and stepping out into the hallway. She walked toward her living room, where she was sure that the voice had come from.

She froze in the doorway. There was someone in her living room, and it definitely wasn’t Seunghee. It was too late to turn back, he had seen her. Pale moonlight shining through the window was the only thing illuminating the room, but it was enough that Jaehee could make out a few details about his appearance. A slight frame, white hair, a leather jacket that hung off one shoulder.

“There you are,” he said, and it was hard to tell, but Jaehee thought he was smiling at her. His voice was higher than she would have expected and sounded almost childlike. “I thought you would come out if you heard her voice. Not that I couldn’t have gone to you myself. You really trust her, don’t you? That’s a mistake.” He laughed.

Jaehee was still unable to move from where she stood. Her blood had turned ice cold, a tight knot had formed in her chest and her mouth was completely dry. It took a few attempts, but she finally managed to stammer out, “H-how could you sound like her?”

He held up the phone in his hand. “I had her phone bugged. I have recordings of everything you two have talked about over the phone. That’s where I got her voice.” Judging by his tone, Jaehee had a feeling he was rolling his eyes at her. “Humans are very easy to trick. I hope I was never so bad.”

_Humans_ , he had said. Like he wasn’t one. Jaehee tightened her grip on the garlic she held, trying to draw some comfort from it. “You’re –”

“Oh, I haven’t introduced myself yet,” he took a few steps forward and grinned at her, his fangs shining in the light of the moon. “I’m a friend of Seunghee’s.”


	8. Chapter 8

_Why did he stay with her? It was only making things harder for both of them. She kept telling him to go, she kept screaming it at him, threatening him, and still he insisted on staying. Why?_

_It wasn’t that she wanted to hurt him, it was that she knew it was inevitable. Even when she had been human, she was afraid of this. She always warned him, and yet he stayed._

_They hadn’t told the RFA what had happened to her. She hadn’t wanted to, and V had agreed. She had never actually shared that much with them anyway. They knew nothing about her mental illnesses, and almost nothing about her past. She was always afraid that if she showed them too much of herself, they would hate her. The only person she could trust was V. He had promised her that she could trust him, and she did._

_But time was passing, and soon they would run out of excuses. The RFA would wonder why they rarely saw her anymore, why she was never in the chatroom anymore except late at night, why she had ceased her volunteer work and halted most RFA activities. They would want to know what had become of her, and then what would she say? How much longer could they hide it?_

_Sometimes she thought that they shouldn’t hide it. Sometimes she regretted keeping it a secret from them. She felt so alone in her predicament, and sometimes she wanted company. Not just V, but true companionship, other vampires who could understand what it was like to live as a monster._

_Sometimes she thought of offering her blood to V and the RFA, so they could join her in this new life. Would they take it?_

*

A friend of Seunghee’s….

The same friend she had met with the other night? He must be. Or, he might be lying. He did bug Seunghee’s phone, and that wasn’t a friendly thing to do. 

“My name isn’t important,” the vampire said. “I’m sure she hasn’t told you about me.”

Jaehee felt like cowering in a corner, but she stood her ground. “What do you want?”

“I just wanted to meet you. Seunghee is very fond of you,” he said. “What is it about you that she likes so much?” He took another step closer and then made a face like he’d just smelled something bad. “What is that?”

Without a word, Jaehee held up the garlic in her hand. The vampire was hesitant to come closer to her when he saw it, which Jaehee might have found funny if she wasn’t so terrified. Seunghee had told her that garlic doesn’t hurt vampires, just repels them. Jaehee wondered why that was. She also wondered how long it could work. A determined vampire might be able to ignore it.

A cross would be a better weapon. There was one in her kitchen and one in her bedroom, both were inaccessible to her now. She should have thought to take the cross with her before she came out of her room.

All she could think to do was stall. She wasn’t sure how long she could do that for, but if she could buy herself some time, maybe she could think of a plan. “Seunghee has talked about me? With you?”

The vampire was scowling at the garlic in her hand, as if it had personally offended him. He was still staring at it when he answered her, his voice suddenly lower than it had been before. “Not voluntarily. I don’t know why she thought she would be able to hide it from me.” He looked up, meeting Jaehee’s eyes. His were a striking shade of mint green. “She likes you too much for her own good. For your own good, too. But I’m sure you knew that already.”

Jaehee held his gaze. She didn’t want to admit how much his words stung. Yes, she knew that she and Seunghee having feelings for each other did no good for either of them. She didn’t need the reminder. “I don’t even know why she’s in the RFA,” she said, more to herself than to him.

“She’s in it because I sent her,” he said. “As for why she’s taken such a liking to it, I don’t know. She thinks she can still hold on to her humanity. She’s wrong.”

“So you’re – you’re Unknown?” It wasn’t that surprising to Jaehee now that he was saying it. “You and Seunghee are friends?”

“Something like that, yeah,” he said. “But you already guessed that, didn’t you? I know you’ve thrown caution to the wind where she’s concerned, but you did suspect her in the beginning, right?”

“I did,” Jaehee said. Her mind was spinning, trying to think of something to do about the vampire in her apartment while also trying to process what he was telling her. “So why did you send Seunghee to us, then? And why are you here now?”

Unknown smiled again, baring pointed fangs at her. “I’m just here to warn you. She’s not who you think she is. You can’t trust her.”

“But I should trust you?”

Unknown grin widened. “No,” he said, and with that he lunged at her, pulling her toward him and sinking his fangs into her neck.

Jaehee’s attempt to scream came out as more of a startled gasp. The garlic fell from her hand, landing somewhere she couldn’t see. She couldn’t even try to push the vampire off of her. The way he was holding her, her arms were pinned uselessly to her sides. All she could do was struggle in his grasp, feeling the hot flow of blood running from her neck. Somewhere in the back of her mind was the thought that this was the second time in a matter of days that she had been bitten by a vampire, and how that couldn’t possibly be fair.

Eventually, he raised his head, his bright gaze meeting hers once more. Blood dripped from his smiling mouth as he released her. She backed up and hit the wall, slowly sinking down onto the floor. She felt lightheaded and weak, whether it was from blood loss or from shock, she didn’t know.

Her hand rose to grasp at her neck, trying to staunch the blood as best she could. She couldn’t stay here on the floor… she had to get up… her vision was blurry, and her ears were ringing, and she was trembling uncontrollably, but she had to get up… get up…

“Jaehee!”

No… it wasn’t her. He was trying to trick her again, it wasn’t her.

“Jaehee!”

Why did she sound so scared? He was talking now, but she couldn’t focus on the words. It was like she was hearing it from underwater. It sounded like… he was arguing with someone. There was another voice mixed with his, and it sounded so familiar. No. No way.

Jaehee lifted her head, forcing herself to see something, anything properly. He was gone, but someone else was here. She was looking right at Jaehee.

“Jaehee, you’re okay,” Seunghee said softly, “just stay calm. You’re okay.” She wasn’t moving, and her eyes weren’t meeting Jaehee’s. They were on Jaehee’s bloody neck and clothes. Seunghee’s eyes were too bright, her body too still, her expression too sharp. Her mouth opened slightly as she finally took a few steps toward Jaehee. “You’ll be okay.”

She crouched in front of Jaehee and reached for the hand that was still on her neck. She tried to pull it away, her touch surprisingly gentle, but Jaehee resisted.

“Jaehee,” Seunghee said, gently, coaxingly.

Jaehee closed her eyes. This was it. That other vampire hadn’t killed her for some reason, but Seunghee would. She would drain the rest of Jaehee’s blood, leave her body to be found by a neighbor. She wondered if Seunghee would even feel guilty about it.

“I just need to see it,” Seunghee said, her voice low and husky. “I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

_You can’t trust her…_

“No,” Jaehee said, her voice barely audible. She tried again and this time managed to say more strongly, “No. Get away from me.”

“I want to help you.”

“No. No way.” Jaehee shook her head. “You lied to me about the garlic. It doesn’t work.”

“Where’s your first aid kit?”

“What?

“Your first aid kit, Jaehee. Where is it?”

“I – my bathroom –”

Seunghee stood suddenly and left the room. Before Jaehee could wrap her mind around what was happening, Seunghee returned holding her first aid kit. She opened it, kneeling next to Jaehee again. 

“The bite probably isn’t too deep,” Seunghee said. “You’re in shock, I think, but you should be fine. You need to let me see it, though.”

“No! I can take care of it myself.”

“Please let me help you, Jaehee,” Seunghee said imploringly.

“No. Tell me about that friend of yours,” Jaehee said. “The one that did this.”

Seunghee sighed heavily. “His name is Saeran. He and I were part of this group. I don’t think I’m welcome in it anymore, but that’s fine. As long as I can protect you.”

“What kind of group?”

“A vampire coven.”

Jaehee let those words sink in. “You were planning something with them?”

“Yes.”

“We shouldn’t have trusted you,” Jaehee said.

“But you can trust me now.”

Jaehee laughed humorlessly. “I’m going to tell the others about you. I should have told them from the beginning.”

Seunghee nodded. “We’ll tell them. We have to now. I’m sorry for making you keep it a secret. I’m sorry for lying to you. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you.”

“Maybe you can’t,” Jaehee said. “You’ve been deceiving me – us – this whole time! I knew there was something, but I let you convince me otherwise. I wanted to be wrong. I should have known better, I wasn’t thinking.” She paused to take a breath. “How do you imagine you’ll make it up to us?”

“Will you at least let me help you now? I’m sure you don’t want to go to the hospital.”

She didn’t, that was true. “That doesn’t mean I want you helping me.”

Seunghee took Jaehee’s hand and this time pulled it with just enough force that Jaehee couldn’t fight it. Her neck was exposed, and any second she expected Seunghee to sink her teeth in, but all Seunghee did was look at it. “It’s not too bad. There’s a lot of blood, but the bite isn’t deep. You’ll be fine.”

“That’s hard to believe when my doctor is a vampire,” Jaehee said. She wished she could get out of Seunghee’s hold, but she knew there was no point in even trying.

“I won’t hurt you, Jaehee,” Seunghee said. “I’ve told you that enough times, haven’t I?”

“I always seem to end up hurt anyway,” Jaehee said. “Though I suppose it’s not always physical, if that’s what you mean.” _She likes you too much for her own good. For your own good, too._

Seunghee pressed a wet cloth to Jaehee neck, and Jaehee's breath came out in a hiss when she felt soap stinging her bite wound. She hadn’t even noticed that Seunghee was holding the cloth. Seunghee was surprisingly gently as she cleaned the blood around Jaehee’s neck. Jaehee flinched every time Seunghee moved toward her, but Seunghee seemed to be in control of herself. 

“How did you get here so quickly?” Jaehee asked. “How – how did you know?”

“He told he would be coming here,” Seunghee said. “He wanted me to find you like this, I think.”

“But why?” Jaehee had so many questions. “Tell me more about that other vampire. And that coven you’re part of.”

“There’s a lot to tell you,” Seunghee said. “Where should I start?”

“I don’t know. Start with how you got there,” Jaehee said. “How long were you there?”

“I was there for a year.”

“You told me you’ve only been a vampire for six months.”

“Yes, and that was true.” Seunghee put down the cloth and started putting a bandage on Jaehee’s neck. “That should do it. Can you stand? You must be uncomfortable on the floor.”

Jaehee allowed Seunghee to help her up. Jaehee still felt a bit shaky, but it was a relief to find that she could stand and walk. Of course, that was with Seunghee holding her. Seunghee guided her to the sofa and sat her down. She left for a moment and returned with a glass of water. She set it down in front of Jaehee and sank onto the couch beside her. 

“Thank you,” Jaehee said, taking some grateful sips of the water. “What was a human doing in a vampire coven for six months?”

“The leader of the coven wanted to… recruit all of you,” Seunghee said. “I was supposed to divert your attention and gain your trust, so that I could lure you all to the coven somehow. I wasn’t supposed to be turned until I got all of you there, but um, something went wrong.” Seunghee paused. “I think I was pretty bad at my job. I never totally had your trust, did I?”

“Mine, no,” Jaehee said. “I think you were pretty good at convincing everyone else. So now what?”

“I don’t know. I think now they’ll try to take a more direct approach in recruiting all of you.”

“Why didn’t that other vampire kill me?” Jaehee asked. “Or at least, why didn’t he turn me? That’s what was supposed to happen, wasn’t it?”

“I don’t think he came here to turn you or kill you,” Seunghee said quietly. “I think he came here to punish me. When I met him last night, we got into a fight because he thought I wasn’t trying hard enough to convince you all to come to the coven. He thought I was too focused on you and not enough on everything else, and he thought maybe I didn’t care about the coven anymore.”

“Do you?”

“No, and I told him so,” Seunghee said. “He didn’t like it, but it’s true. I don’t want to go back to the coven, and I definitely don’t want you going.”

Jaehee nodded as she took all of this in. “He said that you like me too much for your own good. And mine.”

Seunghee gave a short laugh like a bark. “He’s right. He knew what hurting you would do to me, and that it would be worse if – if I hurt you.”

Jaehee thought about how Seunghee had looked just moments earlier. The hunger in her eyes, the predator-like expression. She had thought that Seunghee was going to give in to her vampiric instincts and kill her. “You were tempted, weren’t you? I didn’t imagine it.”

“No, you didn’t,” Seunghee said. “But… I didn’t.”

“Is it always like that?” Jaehee asked. “Do you always have to fight it?”

“It’s not always so bad,” Seunghee said. “I had already fed before I found you two here, so that helped.”

“If you hadn’t –” Jaehee swallowed. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer to this, but she had to ask. “If you hadn’t fed already, and you’d found me like this –”

“I don’t know, Jaehee,” Seunghee interrupted.

“You know, you’re not such a monster compared to him,” Jaehee said.

Seunghee squirmed uncomfortably. “Saeran isn’t so bad.”

Jaehee stared at her. “I’m sorry, what exactly qualifies as ‘bad’ for you? He tried to kill me. No, actually, he tried to get you to kill me.”

“I know, I know. But he’s – it’s more complicated than you think.”

“How so?”

Seunghee put her head in her hands, massaging her temples. Jaehee wondered if vampires could get headaches, but now wasn’t the time to ask.

“There’s so much you don’t know, Jaehee,” Seunghee said. “I don’t know how I’m going to explain it all.”

“You’re always saying that, that there’s so much I don’t know. You’re going to have to start telling me things, if you want that to change. You can start by telling me why the vampire who broke into my home and attacked me isn’t as bad as I think. I suppose you must know him better than I do.” Jaehee said this with as much sarcasm as she could muster. A thought occurred to her. “What exactly was your relationship with him?”

Seunghee started to play with her hair. “I told you, we were friends.”

Jaehee didn’t like the way Seunghee sounded. She had become very familiar with Seunghee’s voice and manner of speaking, and she knew what Seunghee sounded like when she was withholding information. “When you say ‘friends’… do you mean it like the same way you and I are friends?”

“And what does that mean, Jaehee?” Seunghee asked. She sounded awfully defensive.

“Did you have feelings for him?”

Seunghee didn’t say anything. She didn’t need to.

“Oh. Great,” Jaehee said. “Do you still?”

Seunghee rolled her eyes. “Do you really want to do this now?”

“No,” Jaehee said. She was only half lying, she knew that there were more important things to talk about right now. She tried to forget the idea of Seunghee and Saeran for the moment. “What does the leader want from us? He’s not the leader, is he?”

“No,” Seunghee said. She was twirling her hair around her finger more and more rapidly.

“It’s someone who knows us,” Jaehee pressed on. “Did they know Rika? How did they know where her apartment is? Tell me, Seunghee!”

“Rika is the leader,” Seunghee said.

The silence that followed these words felt like they had a weight, crushing Jaehee into the sofa, making it impossible to speak, impossible to breathe. It didn’t make sense, Seunghee had to be wrong. Or she was lying. She had lied about so much already, after all.

Jaehee finally found her voice. “That’s impossible. Rika is dead.”

“How do you know that? Because V told you?” Seunghee’s eyes were gleaming. “What was it that he told you all again? She drowned in the ocean, right? Her body was never found? Did that really not seem suspicious to you?”

“I… he wouldn’t lie about that.”

“Oh, you wouldn’t believe how much he’s lied about to all of you.”

“Well, you lied to us too,” Jaehee said. “What makes your word more believable than his?”

“I lied to you for a week, he’s lied to you for two years.” Seunghee sighed and said, in a tone that sounded like it was trying to be kinder, “I know it’s hard to take in, but it’s true. Rika’s not dead – or, well, maybe she is, if vampires aren’t technically alive.”

“Rika’s not dead… and she’s a vampire?” Jaehee said. She was starting to feel faint again.

“Yes. And she leads a coven,” Seunghee said patiently.

Jaehee shook her head. “No. That doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense that Rika would do something like that, and that V wouldn’t tell us.”

“Be honest, how well can you say you know Rika and V?” Seunghee asked. 

Not very well, Jaehee had to admit. Her interactions with either had been few and far between, and she couldn’t exactly call either of them her friend. Still, even if she couldn’t say she knew them well on a personal level, she wanted to think that she had still had an idea of what kind of people they were. They had always been kind, and generous. They were good people, she thought. What Seunghee was telling her didn’t align with how Jaehee thought of them. Rika being a vampire and a coven leader, V lying to them about her death to cover it up, none of it made any sense.

“There’s just no way,” Jaehee said. “Even if Rika was a vampire, why wouldn’t we know about it? And why would she leave us? She loved the RFA, I know that. It was her organization!”

“She does still love the RFA,” Seunghee said. “That’s why she wanted you all at the coven with her.”

“She wants us all to be vampires with her?”

“Yes,” Seunghee said. “Rika’s coven… she calls it Mint Eye –”

“Mint Eye?” Jaehee interrupted.

“Yes. Anyway –”

“No, wait,” Jaehee said. “Rika… she’s mentioned Mint Eye to me before. I remember, before she died – or whatever – we were in the party hall together. We were making preparations, and she was talking to me about something. About… about finding our own happiness.” Jaehee struggled to make the memory clearer in her mind. It wasn’t helping that she was so disoriented from the attack and from all of the new information she had just been presented with, but even so the memory was vague. Even at the time she hadn’t really understood what Rika had been saying. The words Mint Eye definitely sounded familiar, though. “She said something about mint-colored eyes. I thought maybe she was referring to V’s eyes, but now I don’t know.” Jaehee wrung her hands together. “I still don’t know if I believe you, but – how could you know about Mint Eye then? What does it mean? She wasn’t a vampire when this happened, I’m sure.”

“She probably was,” Seunghee said. “She was a vampire for nearly a year while you all still knew her. Think back on the last few times you saw Rika before her alleged death. Was there anything… different?”

Jaehee tried hard to remember. She hadn’t seen Rika that often in the months leading to her death. There had been a few weeks where none of them had seen Rika at all, and she had been in the chatroom very rarely. But that hadn’t seemed too strange. Her dog Sally had just died, and they all knew she was devastated by the loss. Jaehee had assumed that was why they had been seeing so little of her. Now that she thought about it, however, the few times she had seen Rika in the chatroom those months… they had always been at night, or very early in the morning. She only saw Rika in person a few times after Sally died, and again, those had all been in the evening. She couldn’t remember seeing Rika in the day during that time. Even their last party had taken place at a later time than usual. Rika had politely refused every food and drink that was offered to her, Rika had been physically withdrawn from everyone except V, Rika had covered her mouth when she laughed and her smile had never shown her teeth….

“Oh, fuck,” Jaehee said.

Seunghee looked at her as though startled, and then she made a face like she was trying not to smile. “I’ve never heard you curse before.”

“This isn’t funny, Seunghee!”

“I know it’s not.” Seunghee’s voice shook with suppressed laughter. “Sorry, Jaehee, I’m being serious, really, it just – it sounds funny coming from you.”

“Can you just tell me more about this Mint Eye place?” Jaehee snapped. “What is Rika doing there?”

“So, you believe me now?”

“Yes. Maybe. Just tell me.”

Seunghee sighed. “At Mint Eye, they call Rika ‘the Savior’. The people brought to Mint Eye, they’re all people like her. People who are suffering in some way and who want to run away from their own lives. Rika would give them a new life by making them vampires and, I don’t know, supposedly they’re happier this way.”

“Why would they be?” Jaehee asked. “Are you happier as a vampire?”

“No,” Seunghee said.

Jaehee waited for her to elaborate. She didn’t, and Jaehee thought it best not to press her. 

“How did you end up at Mint Eye?” Jaehee asked. “Were you kidnapped?”

“Not exactly,” Seunghee said, then seemed to realize that this required explanation. “I mean, Saeran found me one night and offered to take me, and I did go willingly, but I think I would have ended up there either way.”

“You mean, he would have kidnapped you if you had refused?” 

Seunghee shrugged.

“That doesn’t scare you?” 

“It’s a bit late to be scared by it now,” Seunghee said. “Rika wanted me at Mint Eye, specifically. That’s what Saeran told me, and Rika told me herself when I got there. She saw something in me, apparently.”

“So Rika… Rika wanted you to bring us there.”

“Yes.”

“She wants to make us all vampires.”

“Yes.”

“Rika is a vampire, and – and she wants….” Jaehee knew that they were going in circles by now. She was still having some difficulty accepting what Seunghee had told her. It was so impossible, and yet it did all seem to fit. Rika’s behavior the last few months that she was with the RFA, her mysterious “death”, Seunghee appearing in her apartment suddenly, and those words, Mint Eye…

“Jaehee?” Seunghee said gently. “Are you okay? Maybe you should go to bed. It’s almost morning, but –”

“You expect me to sleep now?” Jaehee asked. She was exhausted, but that didn’t seem to matter right now. She wanted Seunghee to tell her more about Rika and Mint Eye. She could stay up for that.

“You’ve been through a lot tonight already,” Seunghee said. “I know you have more questions for me, and I promise I’ll answer them. But not now. I want you to rest now.”

“I don’t think I would be able to anyway.”

“You should try.” 

“I suppose you’ll need to sleep soon too,” Jaehee said. “If it’s close to morning.”

“Yes. Soon,” Seunghee said. She stood up and held her hand out to Jaehee, who allowed herself to be led to her bedroom. “I don’t think you should go to work tomorrow, Jaehee. Not after the night you’ve had.”

Jaehee shook her head. “I have to go to work. I already missed a day just a few days ago.” Come to think of it, she had missed work that day because of a vampire bite. She didn’t want that to become a streak.

“I really think you should take some time off to rest,” Seunghee said.

“No, because then I’d have to come up with some excuse for Mr. Han. I don’t think he’ll buy it if I say I’m sick again.”

“We’ll have to tell him the truth anyway,” Seunghee pointed out.

Right. They would have to tell the RFA. How would they do that exactly? “I don’t think calling in to miss work is the best way to tell him. I would rather just go to work, honestly. It keeps me distracted, at least.”

Seunghee sighed. “I guess nothing I say will change your mind?”

“Exactly,” Jaehee said. They had reached her bed, but Jaehee was reluctant to let go of Seunghee’s hand, its icy feel had been uncomfortable at first but it was slowly starting to warm in Jaehee’s hand.

“Get into bed,” Seunghee said, pulling herself out of Jaehee’s grasp.

Jaehee wanted to ask Seunghee to stay until she fell asleep, but it felt like such a childish question. Jaehee was afraid of being alone right now, which was surely understandable when she had just been attacked by a vampire, so why did she feel so uncomfortable telling Seunghee this? Maybe because Seunghee was also a vampire, and one who Jaehee still couldn’t be certain wasn’t a danger to them.

Still, Seunghee had saved her, and Seunghee was finally telling her the truth, and… she didn’t want Seunghee to go. She had sent her away earlier that night, but she couldn’t imagine doing it again.

“Stay with me, please?” Jaehee asked. She hoped she didn’t actually sound as pathetic as she thought she did.

“Of course,” Seunghee said. “Just get in bed.”

Jaehee got into bed. Seunghee sat on top of the covers next to Jaehee.

“Close your eyes and sleep,” Seunghee said. “I’ll be right here, I promise.”

“You’ll probably be asleep by the time I wake up,” Jaehee said.

“Probably,” Seunghee agreed.

“That’s going to be weird.”

“Yeah.” Seunghee smiled. “Go the fuck to sleep, Jaehee.”

Jaehee giggled and closed her eyes. She felt restless, and her eyelids were twitching, wanting to be opened. She shivered suddenly when Seunghee unexpectedly took her hand again, and her eyes flew open.

“Sorry,” Seunghee said, staring down at her. “Should I let go?”

“No,” Jaehee said. She closed her eyes again.

Seunghee started stroking the back of Jaehee’s hand lightly with her thumb. Jaehee felt herself relax, some of the tension leaving her, and suddenly sleep didn’t feel so impossible. How could such a simple gesture from Seunghee make her feel so safe, and why couldn’t it always be this easy?

*

Yoosung’s hands shook as he read the text he had received on his phone.

**I’m coming to get you. I’ll take you to Rika.**

He had been in the middle of a round of LOLOL when he’d gotten it, but he turned the game off now. No way was he going to be able to keep playing tonight. The sender was “Unknown”. As in, the Unknown who had sent Seunghee to Rika’s apartment? It had to be, who else could it be? What did he mean, how could he take Yoosung to Rika? Where… where was Rika? Was she not dead? Was that what Unknown meant? How did he know?

Yoosung texted him back,

**What?? Who are you?!?!**

It was a wonder that he had managed to send it without any typos, given how much he was shaking right now. Yoosung didn’t expect Unknown to answer anyway. Why did Unknown decide to target him? Had the rest of the RFA received messages like this too?

He should tell someone. He should tell Seven. Or Seunghee. He should call either of them, or both of them, but what could they do? Was Unknown coming now? When would he be here? Maybe Yoosung should just leave, try to find somewhere safe to go. He was pretty sure Jaehee’s apartment would be closest. He could go there, but he might just be putting Jaehee in danger then, and Seunghee too, he supposed, if she was still there.

Before he could think of what to do, someone knocked loudly on his front door. His heart started to beat wildly. How close had Unknown been when he had sent the message? It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes since Yoosung had received it, and it had to be Unknown knocking on the door, right? It couldn’t be anyone else.

Should he answer? No, probably not. He should ignore it, pretend not to be home, and call the police. Yes, that was what he was going to do.

The knocking came again, louder, and a voice called out, “Yoosung, I know you’re home. We need to talk about Rika.”

Yoosung came out of his room and looked toward his front door. He couldn’t help wanting to open it when the stranger mentioned Rika, but he restrained himself. “You can talk to me from the other side of the door, can’t you?” he asked, his voice shaking more than he would have liked.

There was a pause before Unknown said, “Fine.”

“What do you mean you’ll take me to Rika?” Yoosung demanded. “What does that –”

“I think you know what it means, Yoosung,” Unknown said gently. It was creepy that he knew Yoosung’s name, and Yoosung wished he would stop using it. “Rika isn’t dead.”

Yoosung’s eyes welled with tears, and he wasn’t sure if he felt nauseated or elated. Rika being alive was all he had wanted for the last year and a half, all he had wished for and all he had thought about. He badly wanted to believe what Unknown was telling him. He wanted to throw the door open and let himself be led to wherever Rika was, but a more rational part of him was telling him not to be too hasty. It was hard not to be when Rika was involved, but he had to try.

“If she’s not dead, where is she?” Yoosung hoped he didn’t sound like he was crying, but knew he probably did. He brushed the tears from his eyes. “Where has she been all this time?”

“Rika wants to explain all of this herself. She really wants to see you,” Unknown said. “She knows how hard it’s been for you, and she knows you never believed V’s lies about her death. She sent me to get you for her.”

Rika knew… she knew what Yoosung had been going through since she disappeared. Maybe she had never wanted to leave him, really, but V made her, for whatever reason. She would explain. Rika would explain everything when he saw her again. He would see her again…

His hand was on the door knob when clarity returned again. He clenched his hand around it tightly, but didn’t turn it. Before he did, he had to know something.

“How can I believe you?” Yoosung asked. “Do you have proof that you know Rika, or that she’s somewhere safe? If she wants to see me so much, why didn’t she come herself? Why send you?”

“Rika can’t leave where she is. Like I said, she wants to explain all of this herself.” It sounded like Unknown was getting bored with the conversation. “I can tell you something that only she knows, though. I know it because she told me. Will you believe me and come with me then?”

“Yes,” Yoosung said without thinking.

“The RFA doesn’t know what your major is, right?”

Yoosung blushed. That was true, they didn’t know. He was sure he had told them all before, but they must have forgotten because he rarely talked about his classes these days. Still, it bothered him that they didn’t know. Didn’t Jaehee keep track of information like this? Not even Seven knew, and he could find out easily, if he wanted to. Maybe they just didn’t care.

Unknown went on, “I know it, because Rika knows it. You haven’t changed it since you started school, have you? It’s still veterinary medicine?”

“Yeah, it is,” Yoosung choked out.

“Right,” Unknown said. “And if you’re thinking I got this information from hacking, I’ll tell you something else.”

Yoosung actually hadn’t been thinking that, but now he was. His hand trembled on the door knob as he waited for Unknown to continue.

“You wanted to become a vet for Sally,” Unknown said softly, so much so that it was difficult to hear him from the other side of the door. “Rika was so devastated when her dog died, and you couldn’t stand seeing her like that. You promised you would become a vet, and make sure that any other pets Rika may have were always perfectly healthy.”

Fresh tears streamed from Yoosung’s eyes, and he didn’t even take the time to brush them away before he threw the door open. No one else knew about Sally. Only Rika.

Unknown smiled when he saw Yoosung. His teeth were unusually sharp, Yoosung noted. He had white hair, striking mint green eyes, and a tattoo was visible on his arm. At first it just looked like a lot of squiggly lines, but when Yoosung focused on it he realized it was an eye. How did someone who looked like this know Rika? But he had to be telling the truth, if he knew about Sally.

“So, are you ready to go?” Unknown asked. “Rika is waiting for you.”

“I’m ready,” Yoosung said. He wiped his tears away, embarrassed that he had let this complete stranger see that he had been crying. “Take me to Rika.”


	9. Chapter 9

_“Savior?”_

__

_Seunghee spoke so softly that she was just barely audible over the breeze blowing through the flowers, the jingling of the wind chimes, their own light footsteps on the garden path. She probably would have gone unheard by human ears._

_“You don’t need to call me that, Seunghee. You can call me Rika.”_

_Seunghee was visibly uncomfortable with this, but she still said, “Okay, Rika. Can I ask you something?”_

_Rika wished Seunghee wouldn’t be so nervous around her and the other vampires in the coven. She knew it must feel strange to be the only human here, but they had been good to her, hadn’t they? She had only been with them for a few weeks, so perhaps she just needed more time to get used to them. Still, they had given her no reason to be afraid, Rika was certain._

_Rika had invited Seunghee to join her for a walk through the garden. Since she had been here, Seunghee had spent most of her time with Saeran, acting as his “assistant”. Really he was just preparing her for what she would have to do with the RFA. Saeran’s reports to Rika about Seunghee had been mostly positive, but Rika had not spoken to Seunghee herself as much as she would like to. It was reassuring that Seunghee seemed to be responsing well to Saeran, but Rika wanted to get closer to Seunghee too, and earn her trust. Seunghee would have an important role in what was to come, and Rika had to be sure that Seunghee would be on her side._

_“Of course, ask me anything,” Rika said. She would be as honest with Seunghee as she could be, there was no reason to hide anything._

_“What’s the point of all of this?” Seunghee asked. She grimaced as if she regretted her choice of words. “What I meant was, I don’t understand what you plan to do.”_

_“What I plan to do?” Rika repeated, testing the words. “I plan to save people.”_

_“That’s what Saeran keeps telling me,” Seunghee said. She no longer sounded nervous, just frustrated. “That all of this” – she gestured at their surroundings – “is about saving people. But I don’t understand what he means.”_

_Rika laughed lightly. “I know it must sound weird.”_

_“Very,” Seunghee said fervently. She shivered slightly and wrapped her arms around herself. It occurred to Rika that the night air must feel cold to Seunghee, but of course Rika couldn’t feel it. Seunghee went on, “Saeran thinks you saved him when you made him a vampire. He says that’s how we’re going to save more people, but it seems to me like vampires are the ones people need to be saved from.” She glanced at Rika quickly after saying this, as if afraid of how she would react._

_Rika couldn’t help smiling at her bluntness. She did like Seunghee being honest with her, and this was a good opportunity to show Seunghee that she could put her trust in Rika. She wouldn’t hurt Seunghee, she wouldn’t even be angry._

_“Seunghee, what do you think of us?” Rika asked, stopping to admire a daffodil. They had been her favorite flower, once._

_Seunghee had stopped beside her, and she was watching Rika wearily, as though afraid that her question may be a trap of some kind._

_Rika’s smile widened. “It’s okay to say it, Seunghee. You think we’re monsters.”_

_Seunghee was looking at Rika’s lips – more specifically, Rika could guess, at her fangs. Seunghee’s eyes shot up to meet Rika’s after a moment, guarded and apprehensive._

_“You’re right, you know,” Rika said. “We are monsters, in more ways than you think. But you chose to come here, Seunghee. I sent Saeran to get you, and you came back with him quite willingly, I was told. Isn’t that true?”_

_For a moment Rika’s words hung in the air, but then Seunghee nodded very slightly, almost imperceptibly._

_“Why did you come here?” Rika asked. She knew, but she wanted to see if Seunghee would say it._

_“I – I was curious, I guess,” Seunghee said. “I don’t know. Saeran said something about giving me a new life and – well, he was an actual vampire, who wouldn’t be curious?” She sounded defensive._

_Rika knew that wasn’t quite the truth, but she decided to leave it alone. She would let Seunghee withhold a bit tonight. “I know why the idea of a new life appealed to you. Did you know that I was adopted?” Seunghee seemed surprised by this, and opened her mouth to say something, but Rika interrupted her. “I know you were, too. And I know that, like mine, your adoptive parents weren’t kind to you.”_

_Rika’s smile had become a grimace. She didn’t like to talk about her parents or her childhood, but she would for Seunghee._

_“Mine always treated me like a freak,” Rika continued. “They never loved me, they never cared about me. Because they knew…,” Rika reached out a hand to feel the petals of the daffodil. “They knew there was something wrong with me. Something dark and strange. Something that whispered to me that I don’t deserve happiness, or love, or anything good.”_

_“Rika.” Seunghee’s voice was full of sympathy._

_No, Rika thought. Not sympathy. It was empathy. It was understanding._

_“I tried so hard to pretend I was normal, you know,” Rika said. “V was the only one who really knew what I was.” Rika plucked the daffodil and held it close to her before turning to face Seunghee. “You know about V by now, don’t you?”_

_“I know he’s your ex fiancé,” Seunghee said. “Saeran hates him, he says V really hurt you. Did he?”_

_“You could say that,” Rika said, her mouth curling into a snarl. “I thought V understood me, I thought I could trust him. Even after I was attacked one night, and turned into this, he said he would still love me, and I believed him.” She realized that as she had been talking, she had also been ripping petals from the daffodil, letting them be carried away by the breeze. “I don’t remember what the vampire who did this to me looked like. But I know why they did it. It’s because this is what I was always meant to be. This is what I’ve always been.”_

_“I’m not sure I know what you mean,” Seunghee said._

_“You can drop the pretense, Seunghee,” Rika said. “At first, I thought this was a curse. I couldn’t step foot in a church, I couldn’t continue my charity work, as long as I was a vampire it was in my nature to hurt people, not save them.” She sighed, looking at the now rather mangled daffodil in her hands. “I couldn’t even see sunlight anymore. The closest I could get to feeling its warmth again was through V’s photos.”_

_Rika paused for a moment. It had been so long since she had spoken to someone so openly like this, and it had not gotten any easier over time. She didn’t like to dwell on her past very much, it was too painful, and too confusing, and it only got in the way of what she was trying to do now. Seunghee had to know all of this, though, so she made herself go on._

_“But you know what I realized?” Rika locked eyes with Seunghee. “Being a vampire was freeing. I was always afraid I was a monster, and now I know it’s true. I don’t have to pretend anymore. And the people I bring here, they’re just like me. You’re just like me, Seunghee. You’ve never been able to find a home before this, have you? You don’t talk to your parents anymore, you claimed emancipation from them when you were sixteen, right? I did the same thing. And I know you had very few friends.”_

_Seunghee didn’t look surprised that Rika knew all of this. Saeran must have told her that they knew everything about her. They had to be careful with who they brought into Mint Eye, they always had to do a lot of research before they approached anyone. Seunghee had been perfect, because there was very little to tie her to the world of humans, she didn’t have a family to worry about her, and very few friends to notice she was gone. The more they looked into her background, the more Rika felt she would be perfect for Mint Eye, and for what Rika needed her for._

_“If you were lonely before, Seunghee, you won’t be anymore,” Rika said. “Mint Eye is the perfect place for people like us. There wasn’t a place for us anywhere else, but we’ve made our own. We’ve created a new life from the darkness inside of us. As vampires, we’re fearless, powerful, vicious. We’re the ultimate predators! Nothing can hurt us anymore. You, me, Saeran, everyone here, do you think we would have suffered so much if we had always been like this? I really believe this was always our fate. Humanity was not for us.”_

_Seunghee’s wary look hadn’t left Rika while she had been talking. “So, why haven’t you made me a vampire yet? If you say it’s my fate….”_

_“You will be one, eventually,” Rika said. “But I need you to do something else for me first.”_

_“You want me to bring the RFA here,” Seunghee said._

_“Yes,” Rika said._

_“RFA – Rika’s Fundraising Association, right? That’s what it stands for?” Seunghee asked._

_“Yes, it’s my organization. I founded it, and I used to lead it before I started Mint Eye,” Rika said. “Saeran must have told you all of this already.”_

_“He did, it’s just weird to think about.”_

_Rika laughed. “It’s weird for me too. I really thought the RFA would be enough. I put all of myself into charity work to convince myself I was a good person. It made me so happy to help people, to feel like I was making a difference. But you know, I never stopped feeling like there was something wrong with me, no matter what I did, and how many people I saved. It was because that was never the way I was supposed to save people, I’ve realized that now. My salvation is very different from what I used to do. Instead of suffering in silence while we try to fight our inner demons, I can give people a place where they don’t need to fight it anymore.”_

_“And you think people will be happier that way?” Seunghee asked. “You think I’ll be happy?”_

_“It might take you some time to understand,” Rika said. “That’s all right. You will understand, I’m sure. I wanted you here for a reason, Seunghee. We look for people who are unhappy to bring here, but I knew that you were different, because you reminded me so much of me. I knew that you would be able to reach the RFA. You would be able to convince them of what a liar and a hypocrite V is, and that the truth about me isn’t what they believe. You could lead them all right to me, and you will!”_

_“I don’t know about that,” Seunghee said. “Is it really so important to have the RFA here?_

_“Of course it is! I built this place for the RFA! They’re the best friends I’ve ever had. I truly cherish them. I wanted to have them join me like this, but V wouldn’t let that happen. He wouldn’t accept me for what I was, he wanted me to fight it. As if it’s so easy to go against nature.” Rika let out a frustrated sigh. “I should have killed him then. I was too merciful. But I won’t be, if I ever meet him again. He won’t be allowed to join us here.”_

_“What about that boy – that hacker,” Seunghee said. “Luciel?”_

_“What about him?”_

_“Saeran hates him too. He says he won’t be allowed here either.”_

_“I had to tell Saeran that to placate him,” Rika said. “But once Luciel is here, Saeran will understand.”_

_“Why does he hate Luciel so much? He won’t tell me.”_

_“If he won’t tell you, I don’t think I should,” Rika said with a smile. “You look cold, perhaps we should go back inside now. Thank you for joining me, Seunghee. It’s been pleasant, hasn’t it?”_

_Rika dropped the daffodil she was still holding, and Seunghee’s eyes followed it to the ground._

*

When Jaehee woke up that morning, Seunghee was already asleep, or unconscious or whatever it was that happened to vampires in the daylight. Jaehee remembered the first day Seunghee had spent here, she had been flat on her back on the bed, her arms folded on her chest. She had looked like a corpse. Now Seunghee was lying on her side, and one of her hands was on top of Jaehee’s, as if she had still been holding it up until the sun had risen completely.

Jaehee pulled her hand away reluctantly and sat up. Waking up next to a Seunghee who was completely unreachable was unsettling. Even more so because it made Jaehee wonder how different this scenario would be if Seunghee was human. Her hand would be warmer, for one thing. She might have been waking up at the same time as Jaehee, and they might give each other sleepy smiles as they got out of bed. Or, Seunghee would keep sleeping, and Jaehee could make her breakfast and surprise her. Maybe Seunghee would give her a kiss before Jaehee left for work, and wish her luck in person...

She closed her eyes tightly and ran a hand through her hair. Yes, things would be very different if Seunghee was a human, and they would most certainly be better, but it was too early in the morning for such depressing thoughts. Seunghee wasn’t human and she never would be again, and that was that.

Jaehee sighed and started getting dressed. She felt a bit self-conscious with Seunghee in the room, and she had to keep reminding herself that Seunghee wasn’t aware of anything going on around her right now. Jaehee had to choose a shirt with a high collar to hide the bandage around her neck. Hopefully it would be enough, she wasn’t sure how she would explain it if anyone saw it. It would be hard to pass off as a kitchen accident again.

As she headed out the door, she wondered what would happen when got home that night. Seunghee had said that she would tell the RFA everything, but she hadn’t said when exactly. Did she mean to do it tonight? Jaehee hoped so. She wanted this secret out in the open, for her peace of mind and for the RFA’s safety. They had to know about vampires, and the coven and… Rika.

Jaehee felt her heart contract at the thought of Rika. She knew that it would only get more complicated and painful from here. She was most worried about how Yoosung would react. Yoosung had been so close to Rika, had admired her so much, and he was so emotional. The news would be a terrible shock to him, and she had no idea what he may try to do. 

She wasn’t expecting Mr. Han’s reaction to be very pleasant either. V and Rika were his closest friends, the only ones he considered friends, really. She was afraid that he would be devastated when he found out the truth about them. He probably wouldn’t let them see it, but that only worried her more. For as much as she sometimes joked that Mr. Han seemed like a robot, she knew that he cared deeply about V and Rika. She doubted even he would be emotionless enough for what was to come. 

As Jaehee tried to go about her work day, she found herself feeling jealous of Seunghee. She would be unconscious until that evening, she didn’t need to think about their situation, she didn’t need to try to pretend like nothing was wrong. Jaehee did. No matter how much she tried to suppress her thoughts and emotions and simply focus on her work, she couldn’t quite do it today. She was jumpy and distracted, and she couldn’t sit still. She felt like she needed to talk to someone, anyone, about what Seunghee had told her. The only person she could talk to right now was Mr. Han. He had seemed to become more open to talking about the RFA at work since Seunghee had joined, so he may not mind her bringing it up. She would have to do it tactfully, though, so she started thinking of what might be the least painful way of delivering the news. She wasn’t surprised when she couldn’t come up with anything.

When she was called into Mr. Han’s office to hand over some documents, she couldn’t stand it anymore. She hesitated in front of his desk long enough for him to notice.

“Is there anything else, Assistant Kang?” he asked.

“Yes, I have something very important to tell you regarding the RFA,” Jaehee said, having come to a decision. She had to say something, she thought she might scream if she couldn’t say anything as soon as possible.

“Is it so important that you must tell me now?” Mr. Han was watching her closely, he had become very attentive once she had mentioned RFA.

“Yes,” Jaehee said. She realized that the door was still open, and hurried to close it before returning to her spot in front of his desk. “It’s about Seunghee, specifically.”

“If this is about your relationship with her, I’m not interested,” Mr. Han said, his gaze falling back to the documents on his desk.

“I’m sorry?” Jaehee asked, taken aback.

“Of course I’m happy for you two if you’ve finally started dating, but I told you I hoped it wouldn’t interfere with work. There’s no reason for us to discuss it here.”

“I – that’s not what this is about!” Jaehee’s face was so hot she was sure Mr. Han could feel it from behind his desk. She exhaled and fidgeted with her shirt sleeves, trying to regain her train of thought. There wasn’t an easy way to say what she wanted to say, but she didn’t think it was something that she should blurt out. She knew that it would be difficult to convince Mr. Han to believe her, too. She had to choose her words carefully. “Seunghee is vampire!” she said loudly.

So much for not blurting it out.

She waited for Mr. Han to react. His face was unreadable, but she was sure he must want to roll his eyes at her, and say something about how she must have an overactive imagination, and explain how illogical it was to think that vampires existed. Any moment now.

“I know,” he said.

Jaehee opened her mouth to reply and then closed it when no words came. It took her a few tries to say anything comprehensible. “What do you mean you know?”

“I thought it was common knowledge,” Mr. Han said. “You saw what Luciel said about her in the chatroom, didn’t you? I thought he outlined it pretty well.”

“That was just Luciel being… Luciel! I don’t think he actually believed it, and I don’t think he knows he was right!” Jaehee’s voice was getting more and more shrill.

“Well, whether he was joking or not, it was fairly convincing, wasn’t it? Have you only just realized what she is?” 

“No, I figured it out days ago,” Jaehee said defensively. She didn’t have to tell Mr. Han exactly how she had figured it out. “Seunghee told me not to tell anyone.”

“Did she?” Mr. Han’s eyebrows were raised, the only indication of surprise he had given since they’d started talking. “How strange. I didn’t know it was a secret, I thought we had all just agreed not to speak about it. Seunghee didn’t exactly deny it.”

Didn’t she? Jaehee couldn’t remember anymore, and the conversation was making her feel stupid. It would be nice if, for once, Mr. Han could be predictable. 

“I didn’t think you would believe in vampires,” she said petulantly. Jaehee closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Maybe she shouldn’t be so surprised. She had once seen Mr. Han reading a book on dark magic, and she was pretty sure she had seen him try to curse an intern he found particularly annoying. She was also pretty sure it hadn’t worked. It was just so strange to think of Mr. Han as the sort of person who would believe in the supernatural. She had started this conversation expecting to have to convince him of this. That had turned out to be easy, and she supposed she should be grateful, but she could only feel bitter that he had known what she thought was a terrible secret this whole time.

“Is this all you wanted to tell me?” Mr. Han asked

Jaehee shook her head slightly to clear it. “No. There’s more.” A lot more, and she was quite sure he wouldn’t be prepared for this. “Rika is a vampire too.”

Mr. Han’s eyes widened. “Rika is de –”

“I thought so too,” Jaehee said. “But Seunghee told me last night. She knows Rika. She’s part of this coven that Rika is the leader of, and Seunghee was sent to lure us to it. And last night I was attacked by this other vampire who’s also part of the coven, and Seunghee saved me, and she’s left the coven, but it’s still out there. And Rika has been leading a vampire coven this whole time.” Jaehee was sure she wasn’t making any sense, but she couldn’t stop the words from coming out now that she had started. “V lied when he said she was dead. He knew that she’s a vampire, and he had to know why Seunghee was sent to us. He lied. Rika is a vampire and he lied, Jumin!” Finally Jaehee paused. “I’m sorry, I meant, Mr. Han.”

Mr. Han’s eyebrows had been rising slowly throughout Jaehee’s entire speech, and by now they had disappeared into his fringe. She regretted being so hasty with her explanation. The silence dragged on, until finally Mr. Han said, “That’s a lot to take in.”

“I know,” Jaehee said. “But that’s what Seunghee told me.”

“Does she have any evidence?”

Jaehee frowned. “Not exactly, but –”

“I need to talk to V,” Mr Han interrupted her suddenly. “V will clear this up.”

“I think V is still on his trip, you might not be able to reach him,” Jaehee said. V always seemed to be away on a trip, and Jaehee had never thought much of this before, none of them had. Of course, it did seem strange in retrospect. Since her conversation with Seunghee last night, Jaehee had begun to think that a lot of things were strange in retrospect. 

“I’ll have to try. If I can’t, Luciel will know of a way to reach him. I won’t believe anything until I hear from V.” Mr. Han ran a hand through his hair. “You can go, Assistant Kang.”

Jaehee had never seen him look so flustered. It was uncomfortable, like this was something she wasn’t supposed to be seeing. She left the room and walked back to her desk on shaky legs. Maybe she had made a mistake. Maybe she shouldn’t have said anything. But then, he would have found out anyway. 

At least someone else knew now. It wasn’t a secret anymore. Still, she hated to think that she would have to go through this again with the rest of the RFA. She knew it wasn’t going to get any better from here.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This update is weeks late and there's not really any excuse except that life got in the way and I didn't have the energy to edit and post. Also, I was pretty anxious about this one so that didn't help. But it's here, and I'm sorry it took so long!
> 
> Uuuh I don't want to spoil anything, but I do feel like I should give people a heads up. Those archive warnings? This is the chapter where they matter

Seven wanted to scream when V wouldn’t answer his call for the third time. Was he not answering on purpose? Seven didn’t want to think so, but… he didn’t know what he should think now. His whole world had crashed around him when he’d seen Seunghee use that name in the chatroom.

_Saeran._

He didn’t want to believe her story. The whole thing was ridiculous. He had joked about her being a vampire, sure, but that was a _joke_. It wasn’t like he had actually thought it was true. He was just having fun, trying to vent his frustration over not being able to find any information about her. What was all of this shit about Rika and a vampire coven and V lying to all of them? And how the hell had she gotten Jaehee in on it? Seven desperately didn’t want any of it to be true, but then she had mentioned him. Saeran. 

How could she know that name? How could she know that Seven knew him? When she had used it, it had been for him. She hadn’t explained who Saeran was, not even to Jaehee it seemed, but she had made a point of mentioning it as if she knew the name would mean something to Seven.

He wasn’t supposed to know anything about Saeran, he knew that. He wasn’t supposed to contact him, wasn’t even supposed to think about him, though of course he did think about him. Every day. However much he’d tried to forget his twin, he never could, but he had at least managed to stop himself from having any communication with him. The most Seven had ever gotten were some pictures from Rika, just to assure him that Saeran was okay, and it had already been years since then. He wasn’t allowed to have the pictures, would be in serious trouble if Vanderwood or anyone ever found them, but he didn’t care that it was dangerous, he had to know his brother was okay, had to have this one small connection to him….

If anything that Seunghee had told him about Saeran was true, Seven would never forgive himself, nor would he ever forgive V or Rika. He had trusted them to protect Saeran, the only reason Seven was able to leave was because he thought V and Rika would keep their promise. They were supposed to keep Saeran safe, and they clearly hadn’t been doing their job well. Seven felt like an idiot for leaving Saeran to them now. He never should have left. He knew he never should have left.

He tried calling V again. V didn’t answer him, again.

“Damn it!” Seven actually did yell that time.

He decided to call Seunghee. He hadn’t wanted to talk to her until he had a chance to talk to V, but he couldn’t get any answers out of V right now, and he had to do something to make him feel like he was being proactive.

Seunghee answered after the third ring, though it felt like an eternity. “Seven.”

Now that he was talking to her, Seven couldn’t think what to say. He wanted to scream at her, he wanted to demand that she explain how she knew Saeran’s name, and how much else she knew. He wanted to tell her that he couldn’t trust her, he didn’t trust her, because what she had said couldn’t be true. Rika couldn’t be alive and a monster from a fantasy book, V couldn’t be hiding so much from them, Saeran couldn’t be… he couldn’t be…

Suddenly all of the fight went out of him, and all he could choke out was, “Why didn’t he tell me?” He hated the way his voice cracked when he said, hated the way his eyes were stinging.

“Seven.” The pity in Seunghee’s voice was unbearable. “Seven, I’m so sorry.”

He brushed the tears from his eyes angrily, and when he spoke again it sounded stronger, “Why didn’t V tell me? If it’s true… why would it be true? Why would he hide it?”

“I know it’s hard to believe.”

“Why didn’t _you_ tell me?”

Seunghee didn’t answer him. Seven laughed bitterly.

“How do you know his name? Saeran… how do you know that name? You have to tell me, Seunghee! If I can trust you at all, you have to tell me!”

“Calm down, please.”

“Don’t fucking tell me to calm down!” Suddenly he knew what he wanted to ask her. “Where is that place? The coven – Mint Eye – where is it?”

“What are you thinking?” Seunghee asked.

“I’m going to look into it myself. Actually, never mind. I can find it on my own if it exists. I don’t trust you anyway.”

“Seven!” Seunghee sounded alarmed. “You’re not going there yourself!”

“Yeah? Why not?” Seven said distractedly. He wasn’t really interested in continuing this conversation anymore, or in listening to her. His mind was already working out how he would find that Mint Eye place and, if it was real, how he could get Saeran out of there. 

“For one thing, it’s full of vampires. You’ll get yourself killed.”

“Whatever. They’re all asleep during the day right? I’ll do something then. I’ll get Saeran out, and then –”

“How? How will you get Saeran out?” Seunghee was radiating distress even through a phone call. She sighed deeply. “He won’t want to go with you, you know. He won’t even want to see you. He hates you.” 

“I don’t care,” Seven said, though he was sure the trembling in his voice was giving him away. “I have to do something.”

“Okay! So let’s slow down and think about it!” Seunghee said. “Look, I know how you feel, but –”

Seven hung up on her. He was shaking, and his chest felt tight, and it was all he could do not to scream. He got his trembling under control just long enough to dial V’s number again – he was still determind to speak to V tonight. To yell at him, mostly. This time, V actually answered.

“Luciel –”

“What happened to Saeran?” Seven demanded before V could finish his greeting.

“I know you’re mad.”

“No shit.” Seven’s hand clenched into a fist at his side. “Were you ever going to tell me?”

“I didn’t think any good would come out of you knowing,” V said.

“He’s my brother! I have a right to know!” He ran a hand through his hair, breathing heavily. He was so furious it was hard to know where to start. “You were supposed to protect him. You were supposed to keep your eye on him!”

“I tried to –”

“All you had to do was watch him –”

“Luciel, please calm down,” V said.

Why did everyone keep telling him to calm down? “I won’t! Why should I?”

“I’m sorry, Luciel,” V whispered. “I’m so sorry this happened.”

To V’s credit, he did sound like he was genuinely apologetic, but Seven didn’t care. There was no apologizing for this.

“Are you really sorry it happened, or just sorry I found out?” Seven asked. “You’ve known everything from the beginning, right? You knew about Rika and – and Saeran, and you let me think everything was okay! Did you know Seunghee was a vampire when she showed up?”

“I knew she was sent by Rika,” V said. “I didn’t know how much she knew. I hoped that she was telling the truth when she said she didn’t know anything.”

“But you didn’t think to tell her what you knew? You didn’t think to tell us?”

“I wanted to fix this on my own.” V sighed. “I thought I had to fix this on my own.”

“That’s stupid,” Seven said bluntly. “You should have told me about Saeran. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!” His eyes were starting to sting, and his voice was trembling so much it was difficult to get any words out. Did V know how angry Seven was? How betrayed he felt? “I’ll never forgive you for this. You and Rika – I’ll never forgive either of you!”

“That’s fine, I understand,” V said.

Somehow the fact that V could take all of this so calmy just infuriated Seven even more. He wished V would say anything in defense of himself, whether or not Seven believed any of it. He wanted to hurt V, he wanted V to feel anything close to what Seven felt right now, but V wasn’t even putting up a fight. V’s resigned acceptance of Seven’s anger did nothing to make him feel better.

“I never should have trusted you,” Seven said. “Did you even care what happened to Saeran? What were you doing to protect him?” He paused, waiting for V to answer him. When he didn’t, Seven cried out, “God, just say anything! Why aren’t you saying anything?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t speak to you for long. I don’t have a very good connection here,” V said.

“That’s your excuse? Where are you right now?”

“Luciel. Don’t worry about where I am, okay? I don’t want you to follow me here.” V’s voice had become intense and urgent, and the change was so sudden it threw Seven off for a moment.

“Follow you – where? Where are you?” Seven felt a chill run through him as he realized where V must be. “Wait. V, are you –”

“It doesn’t matter where I am, just don’t follow me here,” V said. He sounded desperate. “Don’t try to find Mint Eye, Luciel, please. Let me try to solve this on my own.”

Seven was suddenly furious again. First Seunghee tried to warn him away from Mint Eye, and now V was doing it too. Did they think it was so easy for him to sit still now that he knew? He couldn’t trust Saeran’s safety to anyone else, and certainly not to Seunghee or V. Was Seven supposed to sit here and twiddle his thumbs while he waited for them to get their shit together? He was sure neither of them really cared about Saeran. Who were they to tell Seven to stay away?

“Solve what?” he snapped. “What are you going to do there? Why should I even trust you to fix this?”

“I know you don’t trust me anymore,” V said. “But –”

“Do whatever you want at Mint Eye, V, I don’t care,” Seven said. “But I won’t be far behind you. I’m going to get Saeran out of there myself, no matter what it takes!”

“Luciel –”

“I hate you. You and Rika, and I’m never trusting either of you again.” He was speaking very fast and rather loudly, he realized, but he didn’t want to slow down or quiet his voice. He wanted V to hear this. “There’s no excuse for lying to me. There’s no excuse for what happened to Saeran! I wish I had never met Rika, so then I could never have met you too. I’m going to save Saeran myself, because it’s obvious that you and Rika were never going to.” He hung up on V before he could hear any response. He had said what he needed to anyway, and he could only hope that it had gotten through to V.

His heart was pounding and he still had a lot of adrenaline. He closed his eyes and took some breaths to calm himself down. Now wasn’t the time to let his emotions get to him. He had to find Mint Eye and make a plan to get Saeran out. He wondered if he would run into V there. Did he want to see V, or Rika for that matter? It might be nice to be able to yell at them both in person, but the idea of seeing their faces again was painful too.

He opened his eyes. His heartbeat was starting to slow back to normal. He still felt angry, but more than that he realized how dejected he felt. He had once thought that Rika was the first person to have his and Saeran’s best interests at heart, and he had thought V was the same way. Perhaps the two of them had been honest about trying to help him and his twin in the beginning, but they couldn’t be trusted on that now. 

He wished he had never left Saeran to them. He could only hope that Saeran might forgive him, when they met again. Seven would make sure they met again.

*

Jaehee looked up as Seunghee came back into the room. She had left it to take Seven’s call, and Jaehee didn’t need to ask Seunghee how things had gone.

“That was one of the most unpleasant conversations I’ve ever had,” Seunghee said flatly, sitting down hard on the couch. “Which is saying something.” Leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, Seunghee put her face in her hands and stayed that way for a while. 

Even if she had felt like talking, Jaehee wouldn’t have known what to say. They had just gotten through telling the chatroom the story. Seven and Zen had been the only ones present for it, but Mr. Han already knew the gist of it and Yoosung would see it later. It had gone about as well as Jaehee had expected it to go, which was to say it went terribly.

At first, neither Seven nor Zen had believed the story, but then Seunghee had mentioned Saeran. Jaehee had never seen Seven so anxious. She wondered who Saeran was and how Seven knew him, if he reacted so strongly to just his name, but it hadn’t seemed like the time to ask. In any case, it seemed to convince Seven that Seunghee’s story was worth looking into, but Jaehee was worried what might happen when he found out it was in fact true.

She was keeping an eye on the chatroom, waiting to see if anyone would show up and what they might have to say. She wondered if Mr. Han had managed to get in touch with V, or if V had seen what they had talked about in the chatroom. He didn’t come by very often, so perhaps he hadn’t yet, but he would eventually. Would he have some explanation or excuse? Would it even matter?

Jaehee decided that silence was not preferable to talking after all, so she turned to Seunghee. “What happens now?”

“I don’t know,” Seunghee said, her voice muffled because her face was still in her hands. 

“What should we do?” Jaehee asked. Seunghee didn’t respond, so Jaehee continued. “Now that everyone knows about the vampire coven, they can at least protect themselves a bit, but that’s not a long term solution. We need to do something, don’t we? Seunghee?”

She still wasn’t responding. Jaehee’s patience was wearing thin.

“Hey, Seunghee,” Jaehee said, rather loudly and sharply, and Seunghee finally lifted her head. “You don’t get to break down over this, okay? You need to help us.”

“I know. You’re right,” Seunghee said. She started twirling her hair around her finger. “I’m really worried about Seven. I think he’s going to do something stupid if we don’t stop him. But he won’t listen to me. He doesn’t trust me.”

“Can you blame him?” 

“It won’t be good if he meets Saeran,” Seunghee went on, giving no indication that she had heard what Jaehee said. “I don’t how to make Seven understand that Saeran won’t be the same as he remembers. Getting him out won’t be easy.”

“I’ve never seen Seven like this,” Jaehee said. “How does he know Saeran? You know, don’t you?”

“I do,” Seunghee said, “but that’s not my secret to tell.”

“Fair enough.” Though Jaehee was disappointed. 

“I should go back to Mint Eye,” Seunghee said, startling Jaehee. “I can talk to Rika and Saeran, and –”

“Won’t you be in danger too if you go back?”

Seunghee nodded. “Yes, they’ll think I’m a traitor, and they’d be right. But it would still be safer for me to go than for any of you.”

Jaehee didn’t like the idea of Seunghee going by herself. “Let’s wait a bit, okay? I think everyone just needs time to calm down, and then we can talk about a plan.” Jaehee looked down at her phone.

“Anyone in the chatroom?” Seunghee asked.

“No. I wish V would make an appearance,” Jaehee said. “I want to know how he justifies hiding this from us.”

“Can anything justify it?”

“I don’t know.” Jaehee sighed. “I don’t know what to think about V or Rika anymore.”

“What did you think about Rika, when she was here?” Seunghee asked. She had pulled her knees up to her chest and had her arms around them. Jaehee didn’t like people sitting with their feet on her couch, but she didn’t say anything about it.

“Well, like I told you, we weren’t exactly close,” Jaehee said. “She was very kind to me when I joined, and she said she hoped we would become good friends. We even talked about having a girls’ night out, just the two of us.” Jaehee smiled sadly at the memory. “I didn’t get to know her well, but I always regretted it when she died. Well, when we thought she died, anyway. I thought she was an amazing person. We all did.”

“Rika is fond of you,” Seunghee said softly. “She’s fond of all of you.”

“Did she talk about us a lot?”

“Oh, yes. She and Saeran both did,” Seunghee said. “Saeran didn’t have very nice things to say about you guys, but Rika did. She loved the RFA a lot, I know that.”

Did she? Jaehee wanted to believe that was true. She didn’t know how much of the Rika she had known had been her honest self now. She kept trying to reconcile that Rika with the new one, the one who had so embraced her vampiric nature that she was pulling other people into it through any means necessary. Though from what Seunghee had told her, this was all coming from some twisted idea that Rika was helping people. Quite a departure from the charity work she used to do, but rooted in the same idea. If anything, that scared Jaehee more than if Rika’s intentions were malicious. 

“What do you think of Rika?” Jaehee asked.

“I’m not sure how I feel about her,” Seunghee said. “I guess I sympathize with her, sometimes, but she scares me a little. I don’t always understand what she’s saying, but she says it so convincingly I find myself agreeing with her anyway.”

“I know what you mean,” Jaehee said. “She always did have a way with words. It’s how she got so many people to come to our parties.”

“She told me I was like her.” Seunghee arms tightened around her knees. “And I’m not sure if she was completely wrong about that. But I could never embrace being a monster the way she did. She made it sound good, but it hasn’t made me any happier. And I don’t think she’s as happy as she says she is either.”

“Do you think there’s any way to bring her back to herself?”

“I don’t know.” 

They left it at that. Seunghee rested her chin on her knees. Jaehee checked her phone again.

“It’s strange that Yoosung hasn’t come by the chatroom yet,” Jaehee said absently. “Usually he would be here at this time, but I don’t think I’ve seen him there all day.”

Seunghee’s head snapped around to look at Jaehee. “You haven’t?”

“No.” There had been so much on Jaehee’s mind today, she hadn’t paid much attention to who had been in the chatroom while she had been at work. Now that she was thinking of it, it was highly unusual that Yoosung hadn’t been there at all. She checked the past logs to be sure, but there was no sign of him. “Could it be that he was busy with classes?” Jaehee suggested, trying not to sound as worried as she was.

“That’s never stopped him from coming to the chatroom before.” Seunghee suddenly stood. “When was he last in the chatroom?”

“Last night,” Jaehee said. “At around midnight. All he said then was that he was playing games.” She stood too, feeling like her blood had turned to ice. “Do you think something happened to him?” 

Seunghee didn’t answer. She pulled out her phone and dialed a number, Jaehee guessed she was calling Yoosung. A second later she had hung up with a frustrated grunt.

“He’s not answering his phone,” she said. “I’m going to check on him.” 

“I’ll go with you.”

“No you won’t,” Seunghee said. “If what I think has happened is what happened, there might still be vampires there.”

“But he might be fine, and if he hasn’t seen what’s in the chatroom, we can tell him in person. And he doesn’t know you. If he sees someone familiar like me, it would be a comfort to him.”

“That’s a stretch and you know it,” Seunghee said. “You’re staying here.”

“No, I’m coming too.” Truth be told, Jaehee was afraid of what they might find at Yoosung’s apartment, but she was more afraid of being left alone right now. “What are you going to do, bite me?”

Seunghee seemed taken aback by this, and Jaehee thought she might have been impressed by her boldness, but then Seunghee rolled her eyes and said. “Fine. Let’s go.”

*

Rika knew that he was never far from this place, but she had never tried to seek him out herself. She knew that V would come to her if she waited, but it was still a shock when she was told that V had presented himself at the door, asking to be taken to her. 

They were alone in her room now, and Rika was assessing V quietly. He looked the same as she remembered, for the most part. Only now he had a cane, and he was wearing sunglasses. Had he gone completely blind? She was sure that the damage she had done to his eyes wouldn’t have been permanent, but of course he would have refused treatment even if it was possible. He always had to be a martyr, V. He would always be willing to suffer if it meant proving himself to her. She knew him so well, even after all this time.

She walked closer to him and removed his sunglasses. His eyes had become milky and pale.

“Can you see me at all?” she asked him, the first words either of them had spoken to each other in a long time. 

V didn’t answer, but a pained expression crossed his face.

Rika laughed. “What do you want, V? The RFA knows all about this place now. They know all about you and me, too. That girl told them everything. You knew what she was when she got there. You knew that I sent her, and you still said nothing! Was it worth keeping this secret all this time, V? It didn’t do any good to anyone, in the end.”

When V finally spoke, his words were very predictable. “Rika, please, it's time we put an end to this. Just take me, and leave them alone. Don’t bring them into this.”

His eyes were on her, and even though Rika knew he couldn’t actually see her, she still had the unsettling feeling that he was looking right through her, at all of the ugliness and suffering and fear that coiled inside her. There was a time when she had taken comfort in this, but now she hated him for it. She had nowhere to hide from him now, nowhere to protect herself from those eyes, if even blinding him wouldn’t keep her safe from them. She remembered what she had told Seunghee that day in the garden, that she wouldn’t show V any mercy if she saw him again. She knew that she would have to hold herself to that, if she ever wanted to be free of him.

“Nothing has changed, has it?” Rika said. “You still want to sacrifice yourself, and for what? You didn’t protect the RFA by hiding me from them. You didn’t save them, and you didn’t save me, like you promised you would. What is your sacrifice supposed to mean now?”

“I tried to save you,” V said. “I tried to be enough, I thought I was making you happy, Rika –”

“You said you would love me no matter what.” Rika’s voice was rising in volume. “I put all of my trust in you, because you said you would save me, but you never did. You were disgusted with me when I became this, weren’t you? I could tell. That’s why you wanted to hide me away. You told my friends I was dead. You made them believe I was dead!” The sunglasses snapped in half in her hands, and she let the pieces fall to the ground.

“Rika –”

“Was it better for them to think I was dead?” Rika demanded. “Was it better than them knowing the truth about me? You always told me that you were the only one I had to show my real self to, you said you could handle it on your own, but that wasn’t true, was it? You just wanted me to hide everything, it’s all anyone ever wanted me to do. Smile on the outside, keep all of my ugliness inside.”

“Rika, please, stop this.” V took a shaky step forward, and Rika backed away as if he would burn her. “We both know that this doesn't involve the RFA. I’ll give myself to you entirely, just leave them alone, my love, please.”

“Stop talking about sacrificing yourself!” Rika cried. “The RFA knows everything, you’re too late to protect anyone! Yoosung is here, did you know that?”

V looked genuinely shocked at this. “Yoosung? But how - where is he?”

“I haven’t seen him yet, but he was brought here. I’ll talk to him once I’m done with you. Poor Yoosung suffered so much because of your lies. Do you feel guilty at all?”

V sighed. “Yoosung shouldn't be here. I'm sorry that he is." He seemed to be talking to himself more than to Rika, but his next words were definitely for her, "This is about you and me. Can’t you just take me and end this?”

“Why do you think I want you?” Rika asked. “I don’t need you.”

“Are you not doing this to prove yourself to me?” V asked.

“I – no! Why would you think –”

“I know you well.”

“I know you too,” Rika said. “I’m not trying to prove anything to you. I’m strong enough on my own. I don’t need you anymore. You think very highly of yourself, if you think Mint Eye is for you.”

“If that’s what you say, Rika, it must be so,” V said, and Rika almost wanted to sink her fangs in him right then. “I’m only trying to make sure no one else gets hurt.”

“You’re the worst kind of hypocrite, V.”

Rika was tiring of this conversation quickly. V would never understand her, would never accept her the way he always promised he would. Had she really thought at one point that he would save her? She supposed she couldn’t blame him for failing, she had always been a lost cause. What drove her mad was the way he still wanted to believe that he was right. He had been attracted to her darkness when it had been profitable to him, when he could take pretty pictures of her as his own personal art piece, but in the end he hadn’t been able to accept what she was. In the end, if she wanted to keep any sense of identity, she had been forced to leave him.

“How appropriate that I used to say you were like the sun to me,” Rika whispered. “The sun would burn me to nothing now, and that’s exactly what you would have done if I had stayed with you. Don’t you see, V? This was always our fate. I was always meant to be a monster, but it’s more freeing to embrace it than to fight it. It’s the only way I’ll be happy. It’s the only way I can live with myself.”

She hated the way his eyes looked when he asked her, “Are you really any happier, Rika?”

Rika lunged at him, too quickly and too suddenly for him to have been able to react even if he could see her. Her fangs locked around his throat and she knew immediately, from her angle and from how deep her teeth had sunk into his flesh and from the awful sound that came from him, that it was already too late for him. The blood flowed from him hot and fast, she didn’t have to do anything except let it fall into her mouth. She wasn’t even sure she was swallowing most of it, a lot of it seemed to be overflowing and leaking from her lips. She felt one of his hands come up and tangle in her hair, and she thought he might have been trying to stroke it. 

It might have been seconds later, or minutes or hours or even days, Rika couldn’t tell, but suddenly she could feel that his pulse had stopped. She gasped, releasing his throat, and backed away. His body fell to the floor, as if she had been the only thing holding it up, as if he were a puppet that had its strings cut. His throat was torn open, his clothes were soaked with blood, his eyes blank and staring. Were they staring at her, or was she imagining it?

The sight of him was so horrible, so grotesque, but it was hard to take her eyes from him. How could there be so much blood? On his clothes, pooling on the floor around him, still smeared around her own face and dripping lightly from her chin. She looked down at herself and realized that it had gotten on her dress too, and even in her hair. She had not had this much blood on her since the night she had been turned, but that had felt different, it had been her own blood then. Now it was V’s blood that stained her.

She had never felt more like a monster than she did at this moment.

She turned around and walked a few steps away from him. She didn’t want to look at him anymore. She wanted him to disappear, so she would never have to see him again, alive or dead. She ran a hand through her hair. Had he been trying to stroke it before, or had he clumsily been trying to push her away? Was his last act toward her one of comfort, or of rejection?

Her eyes hurt. They were stinging painfully, and her vision was blurring. Something hot trickled down her cheek, and she brushed at it curiously. When she held her finger in front of her, there was a teardrop on it. It was tinged with red, but it was definitely a tear. She was crying, and she hadn’t even known vampires could cry.

She didn’t like that she was crying. She angrily tried to wipe her eyes, but the more she tried to stop them the faster they fell, the more her body was wracked with sobs, the more her voice came out in a wail. She hated crying. She hadn’t done it in so long, hadn’t even known that she was still capable of it. Crying was something that she associated with her humanity, which she had tried so hard to distance herself from. 

She didn’t want any part of her to be human anymore. She was a monster, a dark, miserable creature who couldn’t help that destruction and pain were in her nature. 

_It’s the only way I can live with myself._

She let herself cry, promising herself that it would be the last time she did. The last piece of her humanity would die with V, and she would never be burdened with it again after tonight. The rest of the RFA would join her here in the dark, and she would know peace and happiness with them. She may even allow Seunghee to join them again, if she was sorry.

Slowly Rika's tears came to a stop. She wiped her eyes and gradually regained control of herself. She felt lighter, as if she really had been weighed down by her lingering humanity before now without realizing. It was gone now, she was sure of that.

A knock sounded at the door. She turned around again to face it and called for them to come in. It was Saeran, who had barely taken two steps into the room before he was stopped by the sight of V. He seemed to have been rendered speechless as his gaze traveled from V to Rika.

 _We make a monstrous sight, V and I, don’t we?_

Saeran shook his head slightly as if to clear it, and said to Rika, “I’m sorry to disturb you, my Savior, but I thought I heard something from your room. Something weird.”

“What did you think you heard?”

“Um, it sounded like….” Saeran hesitated. “It sounded like crying.”

Rika smiled. “Crying? That’s funny. Can vampires cry?”

“I don’t know,” Saeran said. “I didn’t think so. That’s why I thought it was weird.”

“Well, you were mistaken, Saeran. But thank you for the concern.”

“Okay.” Saeran didn’t sound like he believed her, but at least she could count on him not to question her too much. “When do you want to talk to Yoosung? He won’t stop asking about you, it’s getting annoying.”

Rika wanted to see Yoosung too, but she couldn’t let him see her like this. She didn’t want to frighten him. She had always tried to show Yoosung only her good side, and it’s what he would be expecting to see now. Of course, soon she would show him her true self, but not now, not like this. “Give me two hours, and then you can bring him here. And get someone to clean this up.” She gestured to the body on the floor.

Saeran looked down at V again. “What do you want to do with him?”

“I don’t care,” Rika said forcefully. “As long as I don’t have to see him again. Just make sure Yoosung doesn’t see. And… don’t tell him.”

Saeran nodded and left.

There was a chamber attached to Rika’s room that contained a sink and a bathtub, as well as a long, gilded mirror. The mirror was a bit of a joke, since she couldn’t see her reflection in it. She went into the chamber and got to work cleaning the blood off of her skin and out of her hair. The blood had started to feel sticky and unpleasant already. She peeled off her dress and sat in the bath, using the retractable shower head to wash away the red. She watched the tinted water circle the drain and disappear. She stayed there for a long time, until she was sure that every stain of V’s blood was gone.

She got out of the bath and wrapped herself in a dressing gown. She left the still bloodied dress on the floor of the bathroom, wondering idly if it could be cleaned.

When she walked back out to her room, the floor was spotless, and V had disappeared.


	11. Chapter 11

Yoosung had been here for almost twenty-four hours, and he still had not been allowed to see Rika. As soon as he had gotten here, Unknown – whose actual name was Saeran, he had been told - had blindfolded him and led him to a room. Wherever he was it must have been huge, because they walked for a long time before they reached the room that Saeran was putting him in. He had then been told that he would have to wait a while to meet Rika, and had been locked in by himself. Yoosung had tried the door, but it wouldn’t budge, nor would the windows open. The whole day had passed, and Yoosung had been left alone here. He had not seen Rika, or Saeran, or anyone. At some point, he had begun to wonder if he had been forgotten.

At the very least, the room he had been put in was nice. It was spacious and opulently furnished, the large bed with its intricate decorated headboard and the impossibly fluffy couches on their own looked like they were worth more than his apartment. There was a dresser with clean clothes that all seemed to be his size. The table in the middle of the room had been lined with food, fresh fruit and sandwiches, and a pitcher of ice water, though the ice had long since melted. There was a bathroom attached to the room that was probably bigger than his kitchen at home. There was no mirror in the bathroom, he had noticed, but it had been stocked with fluffy towels and more soaps and shampoos than any one person could use. He had everything he could need in this room, except something to help him pass the time. He had been rather bored, and despite his fatigue he had been too wound up to get more than a few hours of sleep.

Why had he let Saeran take his phone? The more he thought about it, the more stupid it seemed. He had been so excited at the idea of seeing Rika again and getting to talk to her, he had done whatever Saeran had told him. He regretted his impulsiveness and his naïveté now. He had no idea where he was, and he had been left alone for hours, with no way out of his room and no way to contact anyone. 

Finally Saeran had come to see him at nightfall, and Yoosung had demanded to know when he could talk to Rika. Saeran said that he would be able to see her soon, but when would that be? Saeran had left him alone again, apparently annoyed by Yoosung’s constant questions, and so he was back to waiting. Was Rika even here? Maybe she wasn’t, and Saeran had been lying to him. How could he tell?

Suddenly the door clicked open again and Saeran came in. As soon as Yoosung opened his mouth, Saeran held up a hand to silence him. “I’ll take you to her now. She wants to see you.”

Yoosung’s breath caught in his throat. This was what he had been waiting for all day. No, it’s what he had been waiting for the last year and a half, ever since he had heard from V that she was dead. After all this time, Yoosung was going to talk to Rika. He could ask her everything he had wanted to know, tell her everything he had wanted to tell her. He would finally have Rika back.

So why did he suddenly feel like he might be sick?

“You still want to see her, don’t you?” Saeran said. He was grinning, as if he found something in Yoosung’s expression amusing.

Yoosung swallowed and nodded, still unable to speak. Saeran motioned for him to follow him and he did. At least he wasn’t forced to wear a blindfold this time. The rest of the building seemed to be as beautiful as his room had been, but there was something eerie about it too. He thought it must be the symbol he kept seeing, hanging on tapestries and carved into doors. It was the same as Saeran’s tattoo, he realized. A symbol of an eye, that seemed to be watching him wherever he went. He wondered what Rika was doing in a place like this. What was it for? What had happened to make her leave the RFA and come here? 

After what felt like a long walk, Saeran stopped in front of a pale wooden door. “She’s in there,” he said, stepping aside for Yoosung.

Saeran’s eyes didn’t leave Yoosung, which didn’t help his nerves. His heart was beating erratically and his stomach was in knots. Half of him wanted to run away from the door, and right out of this building if he could find his way, but he got the feeling that he wouldn’t be allowed to do that. He took a deep breath and opened the door. Once he was through it, Saeran closed it behind him. 

Yoosung didn’t have to look for her. She was impossible to miss, standing in the middle of the room, and as always something about her drew attention. She looked just as he remembered her. The same long blonde hair that shone around her like a halo, the same bright green eyes that always seemed to be sparkling. She was even wearing the dress that she wore so often it had become her signature, the brown one with the large cream bow on the collar. 

It was like nothing had changed at all, like she had been waiting here for him this whole time.

Tears stung the back of Yoosung’s eyes as he looked at Rika. She smiled widely at him and held her arms open to him. He ran straight to them without thinking, his tears falling fast now. They hugged each other tight, and he heard Rika laugh softly.

“Yoosung, I’ve missed you so much,” she whispered. “You’ve grown since I last saw you. And you’ve dyed your hair! Blond really suits you.”

He was shivering, which he thought at first was because he was crying, but it struck him that it was because Rika’s arms were so cold. She pulled back, keeping her hands on his shoulders for a bit before letting them fall loosely to her sides. It disturbed Yoosung that even through his clothes, he could feel that her hands were like ice.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t come to your graduation, Yoosung,” Rika said. “I wanted so badly to go. You must have been so angry with me for not being there.”

Yoosung shook his head. “I wasn’t angry with you,” he said, his voice think with emotion. “I was sad, and confused. I’m still confused. Rika, what is this place? That boy – Saeran, he wouldn’t tell me anything.”

“Yes, I’m sorry, I told him not to. I wanted to explain what this place is myself.”

She was still smiling, and it was mostly the same smile he remembered. It was just her teeth that didn’t look right. They were too sharp, like Saeran’s.

“Why did V tell us you were dead?” Yoosung asked. "Does he know you're here?"

The change in Rika’s expression was so immediate it was frightening. Her smile became a snarl, one that didn’t look exactly human. Yoosung had rarely seen Rika angry before, and he had never seen her look like this. He wouldn’t have thought that it would be possible for her.

“V is a coward and a liar,” Rika said. “He didn’t want any of you to know the truth about what happened to me, so he made up a story about me committing suicide. Terrible, isn’t it? Yoosung, it must have been so hard for you, I’m sorry you had to be put through that. It wasn’t how I wanted things to be, believe me.”

“So then – V knew about this place?” Yoosung asked. “But… I don’t understand. Why didn’t you come back and talk to us? What have you been doing all this time? Where are we?”

Rika spread her arms out with a slight flourish. “I was preparing this place for you! For all of the RFA. I wanted to bring you all here to be with me, but V tried to stop that from happening. He had me removed from the messenger and made you all believe I was dead. He tried to erase every trace of me that existed! He didn’t want anyone to know what happened to me. But I missed you all, and I knew we would be reunited one day.”

“Did you send Seunghee to us?” Yoosung asked. “I wondered about her. She said she didn’t know you, but I thought you had to have something to do with her showing up. Did you?”

“Yes,” Rika said. “She had to pretend that she didn’t know anything at first, it was the only way to gain your trust. But yes, Seunghee and I know each other very well. She was supposed to infiltrate the RFA and expose the truth about V and me to all of you, and then lead you here. But that hasn’t gone exactly according to plan. So I had to get Saeran to bring you here.”

“Just me? Isn’t anyone else here?” The more Yoosung listened to what Rika had to say, the more uncomfortable he felt. He was furious with V for lying to them, and strangely vindicated that he had been right about him all along. Still, Rika’s story wasn’t making a lot of sense, and she didn’t seem to be quite right either. He didn’t like this place that they were in, and he still couldn’t wrap his mind around why Rika would be here. 

“The others will be here soon.”

“Is V here?”

Rika’s eyes shone. “He has been here before, but I haven’t seen him in a long time. Now that everyone knows the truth, he’s probably run away.” Rika laughed, a harsh and bitter sound, nothing like the way she used to laugh. “It’s for the best, isn’t it? I certainly don’t want to see him again. Do you?”

“No, I don’t,” Yoosung said. It was the truth, but he wondered what had happened between V and Rika to bring all of this about. They had been so in love once, hadn’t they? Yoosung didn’t have a very high opinion of V, but it was still hard to imagine V just running away and abandoning everyone without a word. What horrible secret had V been running from? “Rika… why did you leave the RFA? What was V trying to hide?”

“He was trying to hide me. More specifically, what I’ve become,” Rika said, revealing her pointed fangs with a smile once more. “I’m a vampire.”

Yoosung wasn’t sure what answer he had expected from Rika, but it was definitely not this. He waited for her to start laughing and tell him it was a joke. Instead she just stood there watching him, with her smile that was simultaneously intriguing and unsettling. 

He remembered Seven joking in the chatroom about Seunghee being a vampire. Yoosung had briefly considered the possibility, but had soon brushed it off. Jaehee had been right, it was a ridiculous idea, just another of Seven’s jokes that Yoosung had nearly fallen for. He wanted to be able to brush off what Rika had said the same way, but Rika had said it without any hint of humor, and it was very unlike her to make jokes like this anyway. And… there was something off about her. He remembered how cold her skin had been to the touch, how he had been kept waiting alone in that room all day and only been allowed to see her at nightfall. And those fangs of hers, that seemed to be gleaming in the golden light of the room, were difficult to ignore.

Rika’s smile started to fade the longer Yoosung was silent. “It’s hard for you to believe, isn’t it? It was for me, too. Ask me anything you want, I’ll tell you everything.”

Where was he supposed to start? He decided to ask the question that was nagging at him the most. “Rika, when you said you wanted to bring us here,” he began slowly, trying to keep his voice from trembling, “did you mean that you want us all to be vampires?”

“Yes,” Rika said, and Yoosung’s fear must have shown on his face because she said quickly, “don’t be afraid! You’ll all be much happier when you’re here with me, I’m sure of it!”

“Happier?” Yoosung choked out.

“I’m happier this way, Yoosung. I’m finally at peace with myself, and I never could have found this as a human,” Rika said. “I know it will be the same for all of you. I know you’re all suffering in your own ways, and I can help you the way I was helped! The darkness isn’t frightening if you learn to embrace it.”

Yoosung didn’t understand what she meant, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to. His mind was reeling, trying to make sense of it all and decide how he felt about it. He supposed he shouldn’t complain. He had gotten his wish, after all. He had seen Rika and spoken to her, but this wasn’t how he would have chosen to reunite with her. Whenever he had imagined meeting Rika again, it had never gone like this.

“You’re scared now, Yoosung, but soon you won’t be.” Rika put her arm around Yoosung and started guiding him to the door. “I’ll show you around, and help you understand what I am. Trust me, Yoosung. I’ll save you, and everyone. Soon, there won’t be any reason for us to be afraid.”

Yoosung found himself nodding along to her words. He had always allowed Rika to guide him before, had always trusted her pure intentions and strong spirit. Maybe she was right, and staying here with her would make him happy. It was either that, or leave this place and lose Rika all over again, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to let her go now that he had her back. Even if she had changed, she was still Rika, and there had to be some of her old self inside her still.

*

Jaehee knocked on Yoosung’s apartment door, and got no answer. She knocked again, a little louder this time, and called out his name. Still no response.

Seunghee kicked the door hard enough for it to shake on its hinges. “YOOSUNG!”

“Seunghee!” Jaehee reprimanded. “It doesn’t look like he’s home.” She swallowed. “What do we do? Do you think there were any vampires here?”

“Yes, but they’re not here anymore,” Seunghee said. “I don’t smell them.” She grabbed the door handle and forced the door open.

“Seunghee!” Jaehee said again. “You can’t just break his door down!”

“I didn’t. It wasn’t locked.”

“Oh.” She followed Seunghee inside.

Jaehee had only been to Yoosung’s apartment once before this, when it had been his birthday. It had looked quite a bit neater back then, probably because he had made an effort to clean up the place for his guests. The fact that it was messy now didn’t surprise Jaehee, it looked typical for a college student living on his own. She wasn’t sure if Seunghee was looking for anything in particular. Maybe a sign of a struggle? Jaehee didn’t know what that would look like.

The apartment was rather small, so it didn’t take long for Seunghee to search all of it. Jaehee stuck close to her, she got in Seunghee’s way a few times but Seunghee didn’t say anything to her. Even if Seunghee had said there were no other vampires around, Jaehee couldn’t dispel her fear. Being in Yoosung’s apartment, not knowing whether or not he was safe, was making it hard to stay calm.

“Seunghee?” Jaehee began hesitantly. They were back in the entryway now, having searched the whole place. They hadn’t spoken since they’d entered the apartment. “What are you thinking?”

Seunghee sighed and leaned against the wall. “I’m thinking there’s a very real possibility that Yoosung is with Rika right now.

Jaehee’s heartbeat accelerated. “We don’t know that for sure.”

“Saeran was in the city last night, he must have come here after attacking you,” Seunghee said. “And I was preoccupied with you, so I didn’t even think to check on anyone else, or find out where Saeran had gone when he left your apartment. He counted on that, I’m sure.” Seunghee closed her eyes. “God, I should have thought of it. It’s my fault, if anything happened to Yoosung.”

“Well, it’s only partially your fault.”

“Thanks.” Seunghee opened her eyes.

“You were helping me,” Jaehee said, trying to be a bit nicer. “You saved me. It’s not – it’s not your fault you were distracted –”

“You can stop trying to be nice,” Seunghee said. “I’m going to make a call.”

*

It surprised Saeran to see her name on his phone’s screen. Had she finally noticed that one of the RFA members was missing? Nice of her to pry her attention from that secretary for a few minutes.

He answered the phone. “Hi, Seunghee.”

“Saeran,” she said, and to his annoyance he felt the familiar rush of affection at the sound of her voice. “Is Yoosung at Mint Eye?”

He smiled. They were getting right to the point, it seemed. “He’s here. He came willingly, if it makes you feel any better.”

“Did you tell him he was walking into a vampire coven?”

“No, the Savior wanted to explain everything herself,” Saeran said. “He’s with her now. I don’t know what they’re doing, or if she’s turned him yet. If not, I’m sure it won’t be long.” Seunghee didn’t say anything, so he kept going. “I don’t know why you care, it was your job to bring them all here anyway.”

“I changed my mind,” Seunghee said.

“Right, because of your new girlfriend.”

“Jaehee’s not – that’s not –”

“You forgot me pretty quickly once you met her.” Saeran hoped there was enough venom in his tone to cover how hurt he was. “So, the assistant is okay? I wasn’t sure if she would survive the other night.”

“That was cruel, Saeran!” Seunghee’s voice hadn’t risen, but it trembled slightly with repressed fury. “She was innocent, you didn’t have to attack her like that – she could have died! Is that really what you wanted? Just to get back at me? You didn’t have to –”

“We are monsters, aren’t we?” Saeran interrupted her. He didn’t like Seunghee scolding him like that. She was actually making him feel a bit guilty, but he shouldn’t. He wasn’t supposed to feel bad for doing something it was in his nature to do as a vampire, right? “It doesn’t matter. She lived, thanks to you. But I don’t know why you’re so resistant to bringing her here. If you like her so much, why wouldn’t you want to spend eternity in paradise with her?”

“Because that place isn’t paradise. And because it’s not what she wants.”

“She will, if we make her understand,” Saeran said. He was bothered by what Seunghee had said, about Mint Eye not being paradise. He remembered when she had been with him, she had often questioned his happiness, and the Savior’s, and had even once talked to him about leaving Mint Eye. He had never liked her talking like that, and had told her so, and eventually she stopped trying to bring it up. He thought that it was because she had finally understood them, but maybe she never had. “Were you always so unhappy here?” 

“Not always,” Seunghee whispered.

Saeran let the words hang in silence. He didn’t want to touch them, didn’t want the false hope they offered him. Maybe Seunghee had enjoyed some of her time with Mint Eye, but clearly it hadn’t been enough if she was still so intent on leaving. He hadn’t been enough.

“Why did you call me, Seunghee?” Saeran asked. “Yoosung is out of my hands, what happens to him now is up to the Savior. The only thing that is still in my hands is Luciel, he’s still trying to trace me. Maybe I’ll let him find us. It’s not like there’s any use in keeping it secret anymore, and I’d like to meet him.”

“You know, Rika will make Luciel part of Mint Eye too,” Seunghee said. “She told me she would, she never had any plans to do otherwise with him. She won’t let you touch him.”

“She promised me –”

“She’s lying to you.”

“Why should I believe you?” Saeran snarled. “Don’t call me again.” He hung up on her and put his phone down, too hard apparently, because the screen cracked.

_She’s a liar. She’s a traitor. You can’t trust her._

He repeated this mantra to himself. He wished it would be easier for him to hate her. He should hate her, for leaving, and for trying to lie about the Savior’s intentions with him. He shouldn’t have answered Seunghee’s call. Talking to her had only left him confused and upset.

Of course the Savior wasn’t lying to him. She had promised him that both Luciel and V wouldn’t be welcome in their paradise. She told him it was their punishment for hurting her and Saeran so badly. And he had seen that she had delivered V his punishment. Luciel’s must be coming next. It had always been Saeran and his Savior, alike in how unfairly they had been treated by the world and united against the villains who had made their lives hell. The Savior was the only person Saeran was sure he could trust. He had trusted Seunghee, at one point, but much like his brother she had considered him disposable once something better came along. 

The Savior would never betray him like that. She had sought him out when she created Mint Eye, he remembered. He had found it strange when she had suddenly appeared in his room and woken him up. He had been seeing her so rarely in the months leading up to it, but V would never give him a satisfying answer as to why that was.

“Saeran, the two of us need to leave,” she had whispered to him.

“Leave? Why?” He had still been tired and disoriented, having just been woken up. There had been a startling intensity in her eyes, and her hand around his wrist felt like a steel vice, cold and unyielding. “Is V coming with us?”

She had shaken her head. “No, V isn’t coming with us. V is a traitor, he can’t know where we’re going. He'll try to stop us. He'll try to hurt us!”

“What? Why would he?”

She had sighed deeply and hung her head, allowing her hair to fall into her eyes. When she looked back up at Saeran and spoke, the pain in her voice was palpable. “We’re so much alike, Saeran. Have you ever realized just how much? Both of us were cursed from birth. Our lives have been nothing but misery and pain, we’re wanted by no one. Have you ever wondered why that was?”

He remembered how as she had spoken, her grip on his wrist tightened painfully.

“It’s because we’re monsters, Saeran. We’ll never have normal lives, you and I, so we’ll have to create our own. I want to make a place somewhere for people like us, but V doesn’t want me to. He doesn’t understand that the only way we can be happy is if we stop pretending. We’re monsters, so why should we hide it anymore? Why should we be the ones who are always afraid? We shouldn’t run from our darkness, we should embrace it!”

She had been right about Saeran being a monster, why else would his mother have hated him so much? Why else would he have been treated the way he was, and been through as much pain as he had been. His mother always talked about him like he was a burden, a detestable creature who was only useful as a means of blackmailing their father, who of course also thought of Saeran as the bane of his existence. But he had been surprised to hear the Savior talk about herself this way. She was so innocent and beautiful, and she was Saeran’s protector, why would she think of herself as a monster? What had she gone through, for her to think she and Saeran were so similar?

“V doesn’t understand me,” she had gone on. “He doesn’t want me to go through with my ideas. I wanted him to be a part of them, I wanted him to love me no matter what, it’s what he promised. But he betrayed me, Saeran. And he betrayed you too. Do you want to know what happened to Saeyoung?”

He would never forget how shocked he had been to hear that name come from her. They never talked about Saeyoung. They weren’t allowed to. Every time Saeran had asked about him, he had been met with fearful looks and small shakes of a head and a quick change of subject. He had never known what happened to his twin. Was she really about to tell him?

“I’ll tell you everything. You can trust me, Saeran,” she said. “I never had a savior, but I can be yours.”

“Okay,” he agreed, though he had not been entirely sure what he was agreeing to. “I’ll trust you. Wherever it is you want me to go, I’ll go. Just please – please tell me what happened to Saeyoung.”

She smiled at him, and he realized then how sharp her teeth were. She raised his wrist to his mouth and sunk her teeth into him, and he suddenly understood what she meant when she called herself a monster.

From that point, the Savior had shared all of her secrets with Saeran. She had told him about her past, and about how much V had hurt her. And she told him about Saeyoung, and how V had taken him from Saeran, and how Saeyoung had been happy to leave his weak brother behind. She had kept Saeran by her side while they built their paradise, she had loved him like his mother had never loved him. She had given him a new life and brought him out of despair. If he couldn’t trust her, who could he trust?


	12. Chapter 12

Rika was so pleased to have Yoosung here at Mint Eye. He had been one of the things she had missed most about her old life. She had missed his boundless enthusiasm and passion, had missed working alongside him and taking Sally for walks with him and having long conversations about his future. She knew he was still studying veterinary medicine, though his grades had slipped since she’d been gone. The extent to which he had been affected by the news of her supposed death saddened her, but she was grateful that he had stayed on the path Sally had put him on. Now that he was here, Rika would be able to watch him and guide him once more, and the thought made her happier than she could possibly tell him.

However, there was one thing that bothered her. Yoosung didn’t seem to share her excitement over the new life she wanted to give him. She told herself that he would need time to think about it, but she couldn’t help being disappointed. She had waited so long to see him again, she supposed her expectations may have been unfair to him. 

He had a lot of questions for her, which she had expected. But… most of his questions were about her and V. He kept asking what had happened between them, and if she had any idea where V had disappeared to, and when exactly V had been here, and what he had said the last time Rika spoke to him. Yoosung wouldn’t let the subject go, it seemed. Rika answered him as honestly as she could, but she wished he would ask her about anything else. She didn’t want him to know what had happened to V. Not yet, and perhaps not ever. It would be easier if Yoosung and everyone could just forget about V, and what happened to him could be Rika’s secret. 

“What do you think, Yoosung?” Rika asked. She had shown him around the Mint Eye building, but he hadn’t said much about it. “Do you think you’ll be comfortable here?”

“This place is nice,” Yoosung said, slowly and uncertainly.

“It might seem scary when it’s so new,” Rika said. “But you’ll get used to it. I really want us all to be happy here.”

“Yeah, you keep saying that.” Yoosung sounded uncharacteristically bitter. He hadn’t used that tone with her since they had first met, when he was just a high school student bored with the mandatory charity work he was doing and they hadn’t yet grown so close. “I have some more questions.”

“Of course, ask me anything,” Rika said.

“Have you ever left this place since you’ve come here?” Yoosung asked. 

“No, I haven’t,” Rika said. “You know that already. I didn’t want to go back to the city once I left. I don’t like being around so many humans, except for the ones we bring here.”

“And it’s really their choice to come here?”

“Yes, of course. I've told you all of this already.” 

“So, if a human was approached, and they didn’t want to come here and be made a vampire,” Yoosung said, “you would let them go?”

“Of course. But no one has ever said no.”

Yoosung looked like he didn’t believe her. “So what do all of these vampires do while they’re here?”

“Some of them stay here all the time,” Rika said. “Like me. We want to isolate ourselves from humanity, we feel safer that way. Some of them leave at night to go to the city.”

“They go to the city to attack humans, you mean? And you’re okay with that?”

“Vampires are predators and humans are their prey,” Rika said. “It’s just nature, Yoosung. Animals prey on other animals for survival.”

“That’s different,” Yoosung said. “It’s different with animals, but you – vampires, they just –”

“Why is it different?” Rika asked. 

“Because you have a conscience. A human one... don't you?”

Rika sighed. “You can’t apply human laws of morality to us, Yoosung. We’re not human anymore.”

“I know that.” Yoosung was giving Rika a reproachful look, but he seemed to be struggling to find his next words. “I know that you’e technically not human anymore, but… I don’t know, there has to be something better than this. Everything you’ve talked about – isolating yourself from humanity, embracing the worst parts of yourself – I just don’t understand why you would want to do that, Rika. I thought you always wanted to do good in the world.”

“I did,” Rika said softly. “But I was only fooling myself. This is a much better fit for me.”

“I don’t like to think that everything I thought about you wasn’t true,” Yoosung said.

“Some of it was true,” Rika said. “The time we spent together meant a lot to me. It still does, it’s why I brought you here. And it’s why you came here. You’re scared right now, because things aren’t what you thought, but you’ll understand what I mean with time.”

“I’m not scared! I’m confused, and I’m –” Yoosung paused and took a breath before continuing, “I’m angry, Rika.”

“What are you angry about?” Rika asked “Are you angry at me? At V? Or maybe you’re angry at both of us, because you weren’t given these answers sooner.”

“I – well, yeah –”

“I’m sorry, Yoosung,” Rika said. “But you know, I haven’t thanked you yet.”

“Thanked me?” Yoosung’s eyes were still more distrustful than Rika would have liked, but they had also become wide with curiosity. “What for?”

“You didn’t give up on me.” Rika smiled at him and put a hand on his shoulder. He shivered slightly but kept his eyes on her. “You were the only one who had any doubts about V, and about the circumstances of my ‘death’.”

Yoosung looked embarrassed. “Oh. Well, I didn’t actually do anything. Everyone else just thought I was being too emotional.”

“But you still didn’t back down,” Rika said. “You cared about me enough to see that something wasn’t right about V’s story. So thank you for that.” 

“Of course I cared about you!” Tears had begun to spill down Yoosung’s cheeks. “I couldn’t believe you were gone. It always seemed like a lie, and I didn’t know what to do about it.” He wiped at his eyes. “It was so hard without you, Rika.”

“I know,” Rika said sympathetically. “It was hard for me too. All this time I was alone here, waiting for all of you.”

“But that’s just it, I wish you had told me earlier!” Yoosung said. “Not just about this place, but about everything. Why didn’t you ever tell me how much pain you were in? I would have helped you!”

“I didn’t want to worry you,” Rika said. She put a hand to Yoosung’s cheek, and was gratified that he didn’t try to move away from her. He didn’t even react to how cold her touch was. “That was a mistake, and I hope you’ll forgive me for it. I won’t hide anything from you from now on, I promise.”

“I – of course I’ll forgive you,” Yoosung said, his tone uncertain. 

“Do you regret coming here?” Rika asked.

“I don’t think so.” Yoosung shook his head. “No, I don’t. I’m glad to know what happened to you, really, I just – I don’t –”

“You’ll be happy here, Yoosung,” Rika whispered. “Can you trust me on that?”

“Are you happy here?”

She was beginning to tire of people asking about her happiness. Yoosung had asked her that when she had been dating V, Seunghee had asked her when she had been part of Mint Eye, and V had asked her right before he’d died. She had been truly happy with V at one time, though that had ended a long time ago. She had found a different type of happiness in creating Mint Eye, but this was better than what she had felt with V, she was sure of it. Was it only because it was so unconventional that people kept questioning it?

“I’m very happy here,” Rika said. She put her arms around Yoosung and held him to her. “If you can trust me, you will be too. You spent two years suffering because you thought I was gone, but I’m here. I was always here, waiting for you. I won’t stop you if you want to leave, but I hope you don’t.”

Yoosung didn’t say anything, but after a minute or so he returned Rika’s hug.

*

“Has Yoosung been turned?” Jaehee asked as soon as Seunghee had lowered her phone.

“I don’t know, but he’s definitely with Rika,” Seunghee said.

Jaehee tried and failed to swallow the lump in her throat. “So that’s it, then. Even if it hasn’t happened yet, I don’t see how we can stop it.”

“We don’t know that,” Seunghee said. “I don’t think Rika would turn him without explaining first. She wouldn’t want him to feel like he was being forced into this. At the very least, she would give him the illusion of a choice. It might not be too late.”

“I’m afraid Yoosung would go along with whatever Rika tells him too quickly,” Jaehee said. “Even with a real choice, I’m not sure he would refuse.”

“Yoosung isn’t an idiot, Jaehee.”

“I didn’t say he was, but can he be rational where Rika is concerned? I think it would be hard for him to protect himself.” Jaehee shook her head. “I’m sorry, I’m just having a hard time being optimistic right now. I want him to be okay, but –”

“Well, even if he is turned, we can still get him back,” Seunghee insisted. “We can get him to leave and – I don’t know, but he doesn’t have to stay there.” 

Jaehee wanted to ask what kind of life Yoosung could have if he came back to them as a vampire, but she stopped herself. It was probably rude to ask such a question to Seunghee.

“So, I guess you’ll be going to Mint Eye now?” Jaehee asked. She still didn’t want Seunghee to go, but she knew she shouldn’t argue. If there was any chance at rescuing Yoosung, she couldn’t impede it.

“I won’t make it there before sunrise if I go now,” Seunghee said. “I’ll have to go tomorrow.”

“It won’t be too late by then?”

“I hope not. Come on, I’ll take you home.”

There was something that had been on Jaehee’s mind after listening to Seunghee on the phone, and she decided she wanted to know. “You were talking about me to Saeran, right? You said my name.”

“Oh. Yeah, a bit.” Seunghee looked uncomfortable.

“So.” Jaehee fiddled with her shirt sleeve, pretending she was fixing the button. “You and Saeran.”

“Yeah. Me and Saeran.” 

Seunghee’s tone made it very clear that this was the last conversation she wanted to be having. It wasn’t a conversation Jaehee particularly wanted to have either, but she was curious. And only slightly jealous. “Were you two, um… dating?”

“If you want to call it that, sure,” Seunghee said with a sigh.

“What would you call it?”

There was a long pause before Seunghee said, “Do we have to talk about this here?”

“What difference would it make? We won’t be comfortable talking about it anywhere,” Jaehee pointed out. She stopped fidgeting with her shirt and looked up at Seunghee. “Unfortunately for both of us I’m going to insist on it, though.”

Seunghee laughed a bit at that. “Saeran and I were… together, for a while. Almost all of my time at Mint Eye was spent with him.” Seunghee’s smile faded quickly as she spoke. “I cared about him a lot. I still do, but we saw things very differently. He’s very loyal to Mint Eye, and I never felt the same way he did about it. I couldn’t get him to listen to anything I had to say about Rika or Mint Eye or any of it. He never wanted to hear it.”

“So that was it?” Jaehee asked.

“That was part of it,” Seunghee said. Her eyes took on a strange intensity when she looked at Jaehee. “And then I met you, and that was the end of it.”

"Oh.” Jaehee was sure that she was bright red by now. She thought for a minute about how she should phrase her next question. “Would you… would you ever turn me into a vampire? You don’t seem to think much of it, but that was the plan, so… would you really never want me to turn? Even if… even if I wanted you to?”

Seunghee’s head was tilted to the side as she regarded Jaehee. She stepped close to Jaehee and put a hand up to her hair, taking a strand of it in her fingers and playing with it. “If you were sure you wanted me to, I would.”

Jaehee shivered slightly, at Seunghee’s words and at her touch. “But I don’t want you to.”

Seunghee smiled sadly. “I know.” She leaned forward and kissed Jaehee, pulling away much earlier than Jaehee would have liked. Seunghee’s hand came down to hold Jaehee’s, and she led her out of Yoosung’s apartment. Even though it was slightly uncomfortable holding Seunghee’s icy hand, Jaehee gripped it tightly. 

*

As sunrise drew nearer, Rika led Yoosung to his room. Not the room that Saeran had made him wait in, but one closer to her own quarters. She had prepared rooms for each member of the RFA, she had told him.

Yoosung knew he would probably be locked in this room for the day again. He hadn’t exactly given Rika a concrete answer on whether or not he would stay with her. He kept going back and forth, sometimes overcome with joy at seeing Rika alive and spending time with her again, and other times feeling hurt and confused. This place felt wrong, and Rika felt wrong, and no matter how much he tried he couldn’t shake the feeling that this was all just _wrong_. 

And yet, the thought of leaving Rika was so painful. He could feel her sincerity when she said she was glad to see him, and when she said she wanted to help him and the rest of the RFA. He had spent such a long time mourning her and wishing more than anything that he could see her again. Now he had gotten exactly what he wanted. If he gave up on Rika now, wouldn’t it mean that all of his time spent grieving her would be a waste? 

He was relieved that it was almost sunrise. He had been with Rika all night, and now all he wanted was some space to think about everything she had told him. It was difficult to keep a clear head with her around all the time. He needed to be alone to process all of it.

“Is there anything you need before the night ends?” Rika was asking him. “I won’t be able to get you anything until night falls again, and I don’t want you wandering around by yourself. I don’t want you getting lost.”

In his head, Yoosung translated this to “I don’t want you to escape”. 

“Can I have my phone back?” he asked before he lost his nerve.

Rika’s expression darkened. “Why do you want your phone?”

Yoosung reddened but didn’t drop his gaze. “It’s just to give me something to do.”

Rika regarded him for a moment and then nodded. “I can have Saeran bring your phone back to you, he must still have it. The RFA will know you’re here by now, Yoosung. What will you say to them, if you talk to them?”

Yoosung opened his mouth and then closed it again. Of course they must have noticed by now that he was missing, and he very much wanted to talk to them, but what would he say to them?

Rika smiled. “I advise you to think about it carefully before you speak to them.” She gave him another quick hug. She had given him many that night. “I’m sorry I have to leave you alone again, Yoosung, but I’ll have something special planned when night falls.”

She finally left him alone in his room, locking the door behind her from the outside. If possible, this room was even nicer than the one he had been in before. It looked and felt warmer, somehow, perhaps because he knew Rika had meant for this one to be his. One wall had windows that went almost as high as the ceiling, and opened out onto a balcony. He was able to open these, probably because Rika thought he wouldn’t be able to escape through a window this high up. 

Once on the balcony, he saw that he had a beautiful view of the garden. Rika had shown it to him briefly, but he hadn’t taken that much of it in. He noticed a fresh mound of dirt by a patch of roses. He wondered idly if Rika was meaning to plant something new there. 

The air outside was cold, so he didn’t spend much time on the balcony. He closed and locked the windows, and then drew the curtains over all of them. Saeran came into the room a few minutes later and tossed something toward Yoosung, who just managed to catch it. It was his phone. Saeran left and locked the door behind him again before Yoosung could say anything to him. 

How did Rika know Saeran? Yoosung hadn’t gotten to talk to any of the vampires here aside from Rika and Saeran, and the latter hadn’t seemed very interested in having a conversation with Yoosung. He had seen a few other vampires here and there when Rika had been showing him around, and they had smiled at him in a way that he thought they probably meant to be friendly, but with their gleaming fangs they just looked unsettling. Saeran seemed to have a more important role here than the other vampires, but why was that?

Yoosung turned his phone on and opened the RFA app. Reading all of the logs he had missed took him about fifteen minutes, and by the time he was finished he felt sick. Of course, a lot of what Seunghee had explained, he had already heard from Rika. What worried him was the way Seven had reacted to Seunghee mentioning Saeran. She hadn’t explained the full story in the chatroom, but he was clearly someone that Seven knew. Maybe Yoosung should ask Rika about it when he next spoke to her, but he wondered if he would get an honest answer from her. And Seven was going to try to find Mint Eye himself and come here? A small part of Yoosung was comforted by the idea of seeing another RFA member here, but mostly he was terrified for Seven’s wellbeing. 

On top of that, he felt awful for having made everyone worry about him. He should leave a few messages for them, just so they could know he was all right. Whatever else he might say to them… he hadn’t figured it out yet, but he could at least put their minds at ease. He logged into the chatroom, and immediately after Jaehee logged in too, as if she had been waiting.

**Jaehee Kang: Yoosung!**

**Jaehee Kang: Thank God, I’ve been checking my phone all night for you**

**Jaehee Kang: Are you okay?**

For some reason seeing Jaehee’s concern made his eyes burn with tears. He had cried so often that night, he felt a bit embarrassed about it. At least no one was around to see it.

**Jaehee Kang: Yoosung??**

**Yoosung⋆: I’m fine**

Yoosung bit his lip, wondering what else he should say. It suddenly struck him how tired he was, and how long he had been awake. It was hard to think when he needed sleep so badly.

**Yoosung⋆: I’ve spoken to Rika**

**Jaehee Kang: Oh… how is she?**

**Yoosung⋆: I don’t know**

It occurred to him that Saeran would probably be monitoring anything he said in the chatroom, and it would get back to Rika. It was probably the only reason he had been allowed to have his phone back. He would have to speak very carefully.

**Yoosung⋆: She feels different, and I think she’s been very lonely here**

**Jaehee Kang: Yoosung, please be careful around her, won’t you?**

**Yoosung⋆: I know. I will be**

**Jaehee Kang: Are you…**

**Jaehee Kang: Um…**

**Yoosung⋆: I’m still human**

**Jaehee Kang: Oh, good**

Yoosung didn’t need to mention that he didn’t know how much longer he would be human. If he thought that he would feel better after talking to someone in the RFA, he had been mistaken. There was too much distance between him and the RFA now, physically and mentally. Even if he hadn’t been afraid of anything he talked about getting back to Rika, he wasn’t sure how he would explain what she was like, or how he felt about her. 

**Yoosung⋆: Jaehee, I’m going to go now. I’m really tired**

**Jaehee Kang: Yes, get some rest.**

**Jaehee Kang: We’ll do something about Mint Eye, Yoosung. Just… stay safe for now, okay?**

**Yoosung⋆: Okay. Thanks Jaehee**

He left the chatroom and got into the huge bed that sat opposite the windows. The bed was comfortable, much bigger than he alone could possibly need it to be, and had more pillows and blankets than seemed strictly necessary. He found himself missing his small bed in his tiny apartment. Nice as this room was, he wished he had something of his own here. All he had was his phone, and he was sure anything he did on it wouldn’t be hidden from Saeran’s view.

He closed his heavy eyelids. As exhausted as he was, it was difficult to keep his mind quiet. Every time he got close to drifting off, a sudden image of Rika’s smile or one of the eyes he’d seen carved into the doors would enter his mind, and he would be jerked awake. It was a few hours before sleep finally claimed him, and his dreams were full of blood and fangs and green eyes.


	13. Chapter 13

_His head hurt. His throat was burning. There was a gnawing pain in his stomach. It was all very distracting. Having her here wasn’t helping._

_That wasn’t to say that Saeran didn’t like having Seunghee around. In fact, these last few weeks, spending time with her had become his favorite thing. This was good, since they spent most of their time together. They were calling Seunghee his assistant, but that was a bit of a joke since there wasn’t that much she could assist him with. She didn’t know much about computers or hacking. Mostly, she watched him work and kept him company, and he talked to her about the RFA. He told her as much as he knew about them, which was a lot, and though she didn’t seem all that interested in her role in their plan, she listened to him. He liked being listened to._

_Right now, though, he would have much preferred for her to not be near him. It had been a while since the last time he’d fed. They had blood bags in storage somewhere in the building, but Saeran had been working so hard lately that he hadn’t thought to get any. He hadn't even been in his room in a long time. He kept falling unconscious here in his work room in front of the computer screens, having stayed past sunrise without realizing it. Seunghee had nagged him about that once, when she had been locked in the room with him after sunrise and had to figure out how to unlock the door herself._

_Usually the Savior would have brought him some blood, but she must have been busy too, because he hadn’t seen her in a while. He was hungry, and he was afraid of what might happen if he lost control while Seunghee was around. She was sitting right next to him while he worked, her scent was too strong and he could swear it intensified every time she moved._

_“Saeran, can you tell me about Luciel?” Seunghee asked._

_She was always asking him that. No matter how many times he brushed the question off, she always asked him. She had lately taken to asking him out of the blue, like she was now, as if she thought he might slip out the answer if she surprised him._

_“I’ve already told you about him,” Saeran said. “What do you want to know?”_

_“Shut up, you know what I’m asking,” Seunghee said._

_Saeran couldn’t help smiling at her boldness. Strangely, though Seunghee still seemed nervous around the other vampires, she wasn’t the least bit afraid of Saeran. She had been a bit, at first, but they had warmed up to each other quickly. He liked to think they were friends now, and he was pretty sure she thought the same. At least he hoped she did._

_“I want to know why you hate him,” Seunghee persisted. “You say he’s a liar, and a traitor, but you won’t tell me what he lied about, or who he betrayed.”_

_“I’ll tell you one day,” Saeran said, which was what he always told her._

_“That’s what you always tell me,” Seunghee said, pouting._

_“You’re cute when you pout,” Saeran said, which earned him a noise of exasperation from Seunghee._

_He laughed, but the sound was too hoarse, too dry, and so he stopped quickly. He lifted his hand to examine it and was alarmed at how much it was shaking._

_“Saeran, are you okay?”_

_The concern in her voice made Saeran’s headache lessen considerably for just a moment. “I’m just hungry.”_

_“How long has it been since you’ve had any blood?”_

_Saeran thought about it, and realized he couldn’t remember. “It’s been a while, I guess.”_

_“You should get some. I don’t know how you can work like this.”_

_Saeran stood, but he shook so much he was afraid to take a step. Seunghee stood too._

_“Wait here, I’ll get you some.”_

_“Do you know where it is?”_

_“No,” Seunghee admitted. “Someone can tell me.” She seemed to be thinking about something. “Or you can take some of mine.”_

_Saeran shuddered, though with how much he had already been shaking it might have gone unnoticed. “Don’t say things like that to me, Seunghee. I might think you’re being serious.”_

_“I am being serious. You need blood, take some of mine.”_

_He stared at her, searching for any sign that she was only making some inappropriate joke. Her jaw was set, and she was holding his gaze steadily… she wasn’t joking._

_“I could kill you,” he said. Did she really need that pointed out to her?_

_“You won’t kill me,” she said. “You need me.”_

_“We could find another human to replace you.”_

_“No, Rika wanted me specifically,” Seunghee said. “You won’t kill me if it means displeasing her.”_

_Saeran didn’t answer her._

_“Okay, then how about this,” Seunghee said, taking a few steps closer to him. “You won’t kill me, because you like me.”_

_Saeran laughed weakly again, but he couldn’t deny that was true. She was standing so close to him now, her scent pervading his nostrils, warmth radiating from her body. It was intoxicating. He took her by her hips and pulled her to him, closing the distance between them, and she actually tipped her head back to expose more of her neck to him._

_He leaned in, bringing his lips to her neck, and inhaled deeply. She smelled delicious, and the burning in his throat and the pain in his stomach was too much. He opened his mouth and sunk his fangs into her, he heard her gasp and felt her stiffen for just a moment before she relaxed in his arms again._

_The taste of her was overwhelming, sweet and slightly metallic. And warm. It really did taste better when it came from a human and not out of a bag. He never got a chance to go out and hunt because the Savior always needed him here. He had never bitten anyone before… it was going to be difficult to go back to the bags after this. He closed his eyes and sighed against Seunghee’s neck. He let himself get lost in the feeling of holding her this close to him, of the hot flow of blood in his mouth. Her blood, that she was giving to him willingly, because she trusted him that much. He didn’t know how long it had been, but suddenly he felt pressure on his chest, and he realized it was Seunghee’s hands. She was trying to push him away._

_His eyes flew open and he released her abruptly. She backed up a bit, but not far. Before he could say anything, she asked him, “Do you feel better?”_

_He blinked a few times before answering, “Yeah.” He was a bit dazed, and he could still taste her blood in his mouth, and he could see it dripping from the bitemarks on her neck. These were distracting enough, but her question had thrown him even more off-balance. “Yeah, I’m better. But does that matter right now? What about you, are you okay?”_

_“I’m fine,” Seunghee said. She lifted a hand to the bite on her neck._

_“I’m sorry,” Saeran said._

_“Don’t be. I’m really fine,” Seunghee said. “You didn’t take that much.”_

_It hadn’t felt that way to Saeran, though it also hadn’t felt like enough. He wanted more, but he was afraid if she let him he would take too much. He wouldn’t mean to, but could he stop himself? It was all very confusing, but at least his shaking had subsided and the painful hunger he had felt had lessened considerably. He did feel better, thanks to her._

_“I still don’t know why you let me do that,” Saeran said. “Wait here, I’ll get something to fix… that.” He gestured to her neck. He was pretty sure they had first aid supplies somewhere. “I really owe you after this.”_

_“Yeah?” Seunghee said. “Then tell me why you hate Luciel so much.”_

_Saeran tensed. “Is that why you let me bite you? Did you think I would tell you about Luciel if you did?”_

_“It’s not why I did it,” Seunghee said indignantly._

_“Why did you, then?”_

_“You needed it,” Seunghee said. “And… I don’t know, I was curious how it might feel. I wanted you to do it.”_

_“You’re weird.” He couldn’t pretend he hadn’t liked what she had said, though. He didn’t understand why, but Seunghee offering him her blood, the idea that she had wanted him to take it, felt strangely intimate. He couldn’t believe she would want that kind of intimacy with him, but he was grateful._

_“Yeah, I am,” Seunghee agreed. “I also did it because I like you, which I think is even weirder.”_

_Saeran didn’t say anything to that. He didn’t trust himself to keep his voice steady. If his heart could still beat, he was sure it would be beating very fast now._

_“But, if you’re willing to give me something in return for this,” Seunghee said, a mischievous gleam in her eyes, “I might as well take advantage of it, right?”_

_They held each other’s gaze for a moment, but after a while Saeran couldn’t help the smile on his face. “Fine. I’ll tell you after we fix you up.”_

*

The chatroom had never been so despondent. The revelation about V and Rika had been hard on everyone, but the news that Yoosung was now with Rika had only made things worse. Seven was still intent on finding Mint Eye and going there himself, despite Seunghee’s warnings to leave it to her for the time being. The party had officially been called off, and all of them had received some angry emails from the would-be guests, which didn’t help anyone’s mood.

Jaehee’s spirits were so low, it was difficult to drag herself to work that morning. Her thoughts kept going around in circles, to Seunghee and then to Yoosung and then to Rika and V. She hoped Yoosung would be okay, and that Seunghee wouldn’t get herself killed that night by walking into Mint Eye. And she hoped Seven would never find the place, since she had not yet managed to convince him not to go, though she had promised Seunghee she would keep trying. 

She had also heard very little from Mr. Han. He had been in the chatroom that morning to tell her that he wasn’t going to the office today, despite his busy schedule. Mr. Han wasn’t the type to be so rattled, and she was worried about what might happen if he kept refusing to talk to any of them. He wouldn’t want to discuss how he was feeling, but nothing good could come out of him being alone during this.

She decided to pay him a visit at his penthouse after work to check up on him. She was greeted by his security guards, as expected, and she noticed that they were all wearing cross necklaces. Mr. Han must have instructed them to. She wondered if he had told them why. The guards let her right in, as they always did. She had worried for a moment that Mr. Han would have anyone who came to him turned away, but she supposed his guards considered her an exception. 

She found him lounging in a chair, with Elizabeth the Third on his lap. One hand was lazily stroking his cat, the other was holding a half-full glass of white wine. Unusual, since Jaehee knew he preferred red wine. The bottle that sat on the side table next to him was almost empty, she noted with concern. She reminded herself that he might not have drunk all of it in one sitting, but instinct told her that he had.

Elizabeth spotted her before Mr. Han did and meowed at her in greeting. Mr. Han looked over to where Jaehee stood and blinked a few times, as if trying to get her in focus.

“Assistant Kang, did you need something?” It was impossible to tell if he was drunk or not from just his voice.

“You’ve barely spoken to us since yesterday, and you didn’t come in to work,” Jaehee said. “Mr. Han, with everything that’s going on, you can’t just shut us out. We’ll worry about you.”

Mr. Han stared at her without a word. Elizabeth jumped off his lap and came to Jaehee, purring and rubbing herself against Jaehee’s legs.

“Hello, Elizabeth,” Jaehee said distractedly. 

“Elizabeth the Third,” Mr. Han corrected her, apparently automatically. “Please use her proper name.”

Jaehee had to try very hard not to roll her eyes. She also had to resist the sudden, petty urge to start calling his cat “Elly”. Instead, she asked him, “How much have you had to drink?”

“Not that much,” he said, with an obviously guilty glance at the bottle next to him.

“Mr. Han –”

“I can hold my liquor well. It’s fine,” he said, and took a defiant sip of the wine in his hand.

Jaehee took a seat next to him. Elizabeth resumed her place in his lap.

“Do you remember the last time you saw V?” Mr. Han asked Jaehee suddenly. She assumed he was asking her, anyway. He was staring straight ahead instead of at her. 

She was surprised by the sudden question. The last time she had seen V… when was it? “It was a long time ago, and I don’t think I saw him for long.”

“Do you remember what he looked like?”

She thought about it. “He had sunglasses and a cane, I remember that.”

“Yes, and he told you he had been in an accident of some kind,” Mr. Han said. He finally looked at her. “Do you want to know what really happened?”

Jaehee’s mouth dropped open in surprise, but before she could say anything Mr. Han continued.

“Rika attacked him,” Mr. Han said. “She damaged his eyes quite severely, though not enough that it couldn’t have been fixed with surgery. He told me about the incident, and he said that Rika hadn’t been in her right mind. And he told me to keep it a secret, so I did.”

“Oh….” Jaehee suddenly felt like she could use a glass of wine too. “When – when was this?”

“It was around two years ago,” Mr. Han said quietly. “Not long before Rika ‘died’.” 

He finished off his glass of wine and was about to pour himself another, but Jaehee took the bottle away from him. 

“Why didn’t V want us to know?” Jaehee asked.

“He said he wanted everyone to remember Rika as she had been,” Mr. Han said. “He entrusted me with it, and I think Luciel might have known too, but you, Zen, and Yoosung weren’t told. He especially didn’t want Yoosung to know.”

“Well, I guess I can understand why,” Jaehee said. “How awful for V... but should you be telling me this now?”

Mr. Han laughed without humor, which was frightening because Jaehee had rarely heard him laugh _with_ humor. “I don’t think it matters anymore. He kept much more than that from us, even from me. I always tried to give V his space after what happened to Rika, I knew he was grieving, but I never imagined he would be keeping something like this from us. And what was the point? Did he think he would be able to handle Rika on his own? He’s an idiot.” He lifted his glass to his mouth, and then seemed to remember that it was empty and the bottle was in Jaehee’s hands. 

Jaehee wasn’t sure what to do with an emotional Mr. Han, much less an emotional and drunk Mr. Han. She supposed she was glad Mr. Han was talking to her rather than keeping it all to himself, as he probably would have done if she hadn’t decided to visit him. This had to be better for him, for both of them.

“I just can’t believe he wouldn’t trust me,” Mr. Han went on. “If he had told me, I could have… we could have done something. It wouldn’t have to have gone so far. Who has he helped by keeping it from us? I don’t understand. I thought I knew him so well, and Rika too, but I just can’t understand any of this. How much more do you think they were hiding from us?”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Han,” Jaehee said softly. 

Neither of them said anything for a while. The sun was starting to set outside, which meant that soon Seunghee would be awake and leaving for Mint Eye. Jaehee wasn’t sure if she wanted to be there to watch her go. It might be better for Jaehee to stay with Mr. Han for a while anyway. He wasn’t the type to seek out company or comfort, but she had a feeling he was glad she was here. Maybe.

Truthfully, it might have been Jaehee who was glad to be here. For the last few days the only person who she had had around her for comfort was Seunghee, and as much as she cared for Seunghee, well, she was a vampire. One who until very recently had had every intention of luring them to a vampire coven. It was nice to talk to another human, face to face, and have them truly understand how all of this felt. The confusion and hurt over Rika’s duality and V’s lies, the reality-shaking fact that vampires existed… Seunghee couldn’t really understand these things the way the other RFA members could. It was funny to think that Jaehee would ever find Mr. Han’s presence comforting, but here she was, sitting next to him in his penthouse and feeling safer than she had in a while.

Mr. Han suddenly broke the silence. “V was here yesterday.”

Jaehee almost dropped the wine bottle.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not dead, just bad at updating in a timely fashion. Happy 2019, enjoy the angst!

_He hadn’t meant to take so much from her. It had been a mistake, a lapse in judgment, a momentary loss of control – and she hadn’t stopped him. Why hadn’t she stopped him?_

_No, that wasn’t fair. It was his fault for letting it go this far. He felt sick, with the taste of her blood still on his tongue, and the sight of red staining their clothes._

__

_That first night that Seunghee had let him take her blood, Saeran had thought that it would be the last time. But she had kept offering, and against his better judgment he had kept accepting, and it had become something of a bond between them. He didn’t understand what she got out of it, and she was either unwilling or unable to explain, but he had liked having this connection with her. It made him feel like Seunghee really trusted him in a way that no one else did, not even the Savior. She trusted him not to hurt her, and in turn she was taking care of him. It was comforting, more so than anything else had been to him in a long time._

_But now she had lost too much blood, and was losing more too fast. She sat on the floor, barely able to keep her head up, her eyes drifting open and shut. What could he do? He didn’t want her to die – it wasn’t just that the Savior would be displeased. He couldn’t lose Seunghee. He couldn’t let her leave him._

_He didn’t see any other option. He bit into his wrist, hard enough for his own blood to seep from his arm, and held it to her lips._

_“Drink,” Saeran said._

_Her eyes focused on him, and he saw understanding dawn in them. A moment later she looked terrified. She shook her head weakly, and her lips moved but no sound came out. Was she trying to say no? She was scared, that was normal, but he couldn’t let her refuse._

_“Drink,” he said more insistently, and brought his wrist even closer to her, so that he felt his blood smear her lips._

_Her tongue licked at his blood tentatively at first, and then with alarming force she was holding his arm and drinking him in deeply. Oh, the Savior wouldn’t like this. She hadn’t wanted Seunghee to turn yet, not until she had convinced the whole RFA to follow her here. But this was better than letting her die. The Savior would see it as a necessity, if he explained. She would be angry, that was unavoidable, but what choice did he have? She would understand. The Savior and Seunghee, they would both understand…_

__

_How much of his blood was he supposed to let Seunghee have? He had never turned anyone before. He thought she had probably had enough, or he hoped, at least. He pulled his arm out of her grip, and when she looked at him he thought she might try to take it back. Her eyes were shining in a way he had never seen before._

_Did she have enough? Did she need more?_

_“Saeran,” she said. Her voice was weak, but he was surprised she had spoken at all. “I feel sick.”_

_“Because you’re dying,” he said. “But you’ll be fine. Welcome to your new life.”_

*

How could Mr. Han drop that news so lightly, and so shamelessly? Perhaps it was because of the wine he had drunk, but Mr. Han’s face was more expressive than usual. From the look it wore now, Jaehee thought he was regretting not being more careful.

“You – V was – V was here?” Jaehee stammered. “He was here?”

“Yes,” Mr. Han confirmed.

Jaehee made a few more attempts at speech interspersed with some huffy sounds of exasperation. She squeezed her eyes shut and started rubbing her temples, her mouth in a hard line. She really wanted to yell at Mr. Han right now, but she just managed to hold herself back. Finally she looked at him and, with a great effort, asked, “Why – why didn’t you tell us? We’ve been waiting to hear from V – all of us – and only now are you saying that you’ve seen him? You spoke to him?” 

“I don’t think you’re one to talk,” Mr. Han said defensively. “How long did you know that Seunghee was a vampire before you told us?”

Jaehee glared at him. “I don’t think that’s fair. And I thought you figured that out without my help.”

“That is true,” Mr. Han said. “But even so, you can’t be mad at me for withholding sensitive information when you thought you were doing the same.”

“Okay, fine,” Jaehee said. She didn’t think it was fine at all, but she wanted to move on from this argument. “Just tell me what happened. What did V say?”

Mr. Han looked pained. “I planned to tell the RFA, but I wanted time to sort out my thoughts before that. It’s taking me longer than it usually does. I blame the wine for making me bring it up.”

Jaehee felt a pang of sympathy for him. She was still annoyed that he had been keeping this information from them, but whatever V had said must have shaken Mr. Han up badly, if he was still having difficulty processing it. Still, she wasn’t going to let Mr. Han back out of the conversation now that he had brought it up. “Well, you have to tell me now.”

He sighed deeply before starting, “After I called V a dozen times yesterday, he decided to pay me a visit. I told him what you told me, and he said he was leaving.”

Jaehee stared at him expectantly. When he didn’t elaborate, she said, “That can’t be it. What else did he say?”

“He didn’t say much,” Mr. Han said. “He didn’t confirm that what you had said about Rika was true, but he also didn’t deny it. He said that he would have to leave the RFA, and that he was appointing me its new leader, because he was going to disappear.”

“Disappear?” 

“He kept apologizing, and saying he would understand if we were all mad at him,” Mr. Han said. “How noble of him, to give us permission to be angry, don’t you think?” He gave a short, bitter laugh, then he pointed to the bottle Jaehee was still holding. “Assistant Kang, could you –”

“No, you’ve had enough wine,” she said firmly. “Is that really all V said?”

“He said… he said he was going where Rika was. And he didn’t want any of us to follow him.”

“Where Rika is?” Jaehee’s voice was an octave higher than usual. “But – Mr. Han – he must mean –”

“The Mint Eye building, wherever that is.” 

“Why would he go there? Didn’t you try to stop him?”

“Of course I tried to stop him,” Mr. Han said icily.

Jaehee knew she had crossed a line. She felt her face heat up. “I’m sorry. Of course you did – I didn’t mean – I’m sorry.”

“Like I said, he wouldn’t confirm or deny that Rika is a vampire,” Mr. Han said. “And no matter how much I tried to fight him on it, he wouldn’t change his mind. The most infuriating thing is, he didn’t really try to fight back. He just kept apologizing. It was very annoying.”

“V never did like to fight about anything,” Jaehee said.

“And yet, he’s one of the most stubborn people I know.” 

“Do you think V is at Mint Eye now?” Jaehee asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Han said. “I hope… it’s not too late. But I’m afraid… I should have followed V, or prevented him from leaving the penthouse.”

“You couldn’t have done those things, Mr. Han,” Jaehee said. “It’s not your fault, whatever happens to V.”

“It might be,” Mr. Han said. “I should have done more to stop him from going to Mint Eye. I know that V means to sacrifice himself, but that wouldn’t have been necessary if he had been honest with me. Do you think I could have done more, Assistant Kang?”

Was he actually seeking comfort from her? She wasn’t used to Mr. Han being so emotionally honest with her. He was looking at her so expectantly. She hardly knew what to say to him, but she managed to come up with, “It would be difficult to help him unless he lets you.”

He didn’t say anything to that, and Jaehee couldn’t blame him. It was a depressing note to end the conversation on. She didn’t think there was anything else she could do for Mr. Han right now, however, so she stood. “I think I should be going now.”

Mr. Han looked at her in shock. “You can’t go. Not at this hour.”

“It’s not dark yet,” she said.

“It will be very soon,” Mr. Han said. “I don’t think you should risk going home. You can spend the night here.”

“Oh. Are you sure?”

“Yes. I don’t want my assistant being attacked by vampires.”

Jaehee hesitated, but she was actually relieved when she answered, “Okay, I’ll stay. I’ll just leave Seunghee a message so she knows where I am.” She looked around her, wondering what to do next. “Um –”

“There’s a guest room down the hall you can use,” Mr. Han said, “if you want some privacy.”

She put the wine bottle down on the table and left the room. She found the guestroom and closed the door behind her. She was nervous as she dialed Seunghee’s number, she hadn’t planned what she was going to say. Jaehee also felt guilty for not being there to see Seunghee off, but this might be better for both of them. Seunghee probably didn’t need Jaehee around as a possible distraction, and Jaehee would be safer here. She wouldn’t be tempted to stop Seunghee from leaving, or beg Seunghee to let Jaehee go with her. And Jaehee wouldn't have to spend the night alone in an apartment that had already been broken into once. Yes, this was better. Jaehee had to believe that this was better.

Seunghee’s voicemail picked up. It wasn’t yet dark enough for Seunghee to be awake. 

“Hi, Seunghee. It’s Jaehee.” She bit her lip. She probably hadn’t needed to identify herself, Seunghee knew her voice. “Um, when you wake up, I won’t be there. Don’t worry about me, though, I’m at Mr. Han’s house. I wanted to check on him after work and it’s gotten late, so he said I should stay here for tonight. I thought it was a good idea, so, that’s what I’m doing. I’m sorry that means I won’t be there when – when you go.” She had to stop for a moment as a lump formed in her throat and her eyes welled with tears. Her voice cracked when she spoke, but she managed to get the words out. “Keep in touch with me, please. And… good luck at – at Mint Eye.” 

She hung up and wiped her eyes quickly, then rejoined Mr. Han in his living room. 

“Have you eaten?” he asked her, and she shook her head in response. “Neither have I. I ordered food for both of us, if you’re hungry.”

“Thank you, Mr. Han,” she said hoarsely, sitting down again.

“Of course,” he said. 

She wondered if he had noticed that she had been crying. If he had, he was pretending not to. She didn’t know what she would have said to him, so that was probably for the best.

“Jaehee.” 

She looked up, her eyes widened in surprise. It had been a long time since Mr. Han had used her first name.

He seemed to be deliberating on what to say next, but finally he said, “Is there anything else I can get you?”

Jaehee looked at her hands, and then at the bottle across from her. “I’d really like a drink.”

Mr.Han’s lips twitched. “I’ll get another bottle.”

*

As soon as Rika woke that night, she went to Yoosung’s room. She was excited and nervous all at once as she all but ran to his door.

She knocked on the door, but there was no response from inside. She knocked again. Panic set in when there was still so answer. She forgot that she had a key to unlock the door and instead forced it open.

Her eyes scanned the room, and she sighed in relief when she spotted him. He hadn’t escaped, he was still asleep. Yoosung had always been a heavy sleeper. How could she have forgotten? He was still lying in his bed, eyes shut and breathing deeply. He looked tiny in the giant bed. His blankets were wrapped around him like a cocoon and his head was all but hidden among the many pillows. She almost didn’t want to wake him just yet, but she had to. She didn’t want to wait.

She walked up to his bed and shook him, gently at first but then more vigorously when he still wasn’t waking up. “Yoosung!”

His eyes flew open and landed on her. He sat up suddenly. “Is it – what time –” He swallowed. “Was I asleep all day?”

Rika grinned. “It looks that way. You must have been tired. Better wake up fast, Yoosung. You have a choice to make.”

He got out of bed and, not taking his gaze off of her, walked around and backed away from her. He had the look of cornered prey. “Rika – can I have more time to think, please?”

That wasn’t what she had wanted to hear. She tried to keep her tone even as she answered. She didn't want to scare him. “How much longer do you need to think?”

“I – I don’t –”

“I think you’ve had enough time,” she said sharply. “You’ve been here long enough, I’ve told you all I have to tell you, what else do you need to think about?” She walked forward, and he kept backing away until he hit the wall. Was he that afraid of her now? He must have realized that she wasn’t what he remembered, she would never be that Rika again. But was he going to reject her? Didn’t he still love her? “Tell me if you want to stay or not. Tell me – don’t think, just tell me!”

“Rika –”

“You already have your answer don’t you?” she cried. “Tell me!”

Yoosung took a deep breath, and when he spoke his voice was surprisingly strong and steady. “I’m not staying, Rika. I’m sorry – I know you said that this place has helped you, but I don’t think that’s the answer for me. I don’t want to embrace the dark or whatever it is you said. I’m sorry.”

He wasn't staying. _I’m not staying, Rika._ He had really said that? He wasn't staying?

Rika couldn’t speak. Yoosung was saying no? He didn’t want to stay here with her? But why not? He must not understand. He still needed time. She had rushed him. If he thought about it more, he would change his mind. He would realize how good this place was, and how much better he would feel if he stayed. And then when she made him a vampire, he would thank her.

“Rika.” He was talking to her again, but she heard it as if from a great distance. She tried to clear her head and focus on what he was saying. “Rika, you don’t have to stay here. We can both leave. Even if you’re a vampire – I don’t know, you can come back.”

“How – how can I go back?” Rika asked. “There’s no place for monsters like me in the world, that’s why I had to create my own. What could I go back to? No one will accept me like this!”

“How do you know?” Yoosung asked. “You never gave us a chance to understand you, even before all of this, you never let us help you! We would have, if you had told us. We still would, so can’t you stop all of this? I – I don’t want to lose you again, Rika, but I’m not staying here.”

“Mint Eye is where I’m meant to be,” Rika whispered. “I made this place for people like me. Everyone I’ve brought here – they’re all like me. They’ve all suffered, they were all cursed. This is our fate. We can’t leave.”

“That’s not true,” Yoosung said. “Please, Rika, don’t think it’s too late for you.”

Tears were spilling down his cheeks. Rika looked away from him. She wished he wouldn’t cry, it reminded her too much of the tears she shed last night. She gave up on her humanity, didn’t he realize that? It wasn’t her own choice, it was nature’s. 

“You told me you would let me leave if I chose to,” Yoosung reminded her.

She did say that. She also didn’t expect him to make that choice. What could she do now? She could keep her word, but then she would lose him, and if even Yoosung wouldn’t trust her, would the rest of the RFA? Rika couldn’t leave with Yoosung, that was a given, but without the RFA here, all of this felt pointless.

“I can’t leave,” Rika said. “I can’t go back with you, Yoosung. I’ve put too much of myself into creating Mint Eye. I had to give up everything, my friends, my fiancé, my life, everything I cared about had to be surrendered. I was never meant to have those things anyway. What would I have to go back to if I left?” She met Yoosung’s gaze again. “V had to die for me to be what I am.”

Yoosung looked horrified. “What do you mean – died? V died? How do you know? You said he ran – and you haven’t seen him –”

Rika smiled. “You should know better than to trust monsters.” And with that, she grabbed Yoosung’s arm and bit him.


End file.
